EmailBest Reviewed
Search Engines
- Best search engine overall Google *Est. $0
- Best alternative search engine Yahoo! Search *Est. $0
- Search engine for direct answers, customization Windows Live Search *Est. $0
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Best search engine overall
- Quick, relevant results
- Searches images, videos, blogs and books
- Excellent advanced search tools
- Users can distinguish between paid ads and real results
- Not enough by itself for big research projects
- Doesn't always provide direct answers
April 2009. By far the most popular of all search engines, Google remains the favorite choice of both users and expert reviewers, who praise its speed, relevant results and ease of use. Besides its core web search, Google also has such cutting-edge features as the ability to search images, videos and blogs, and one can use Book Search to preview text from Google's selection of digitized books. Experts give Google high scores for its disclosure practices, which make it easy to distinguish paid ads from real results, but they point out that even Google only covers about half of the web. To perform a thorough search, reviewers recommend using Google in combination with other search tools, such as Yahoo! Search. For direct answers to a query, reviews recommend Windows Live Search.
Library research professionals provide the most credible recommendations for search engines, and we found valuable charts at the University of California, Berkeley Library site and at InfoPeople.org. For more detailed comparison tests, we turned to reviews at Dolores Labs, SearchEngineLand.com, Laptop Magazine and StraightUpSearch.com.
Our Sources
1. University of California, Berkeley Library
Google is the first search engine recommended by experts at the UC Berkeley Library, but they note that only about half the web is indexed by Google. They recommend using Yahoo! and Exalead as supplementary tools -- but they advise against using meta-search or clustering tools.
Review: Recommended Search Engines, Editors of University of California, Berkeley Library, Feb. 2009
This site designed for librarians recommends Google as one of the three best search engines, noting its many specialized searches (such as for Usenet groups), tools and translations.
Review: Best Search Tools Chart, Joe Barker, Sept. 2008
3. Dolores Labs
Based on results of 500 random queries, testers find the results at Google about as relevant as those at Live.com and Yahoo! Search -- with all three providing relevant results for about 80 percent of the queries. (Ask.com gets a lower rating for relevance.)
Review: Search Engine Relevance -- an Empirical Test, Brendan O'Connor, Apr. 3, 2008
Google loses points to Live.com and Ask.com in this recent comparison review, because both the latter search engines provide direct answers to a query for "oscar winners," but Google (and Yahoo! Search) only provide links to the information.
Review: And the Oscar for Best Search Engine for Oscar Winners Goes to É Microsoft Live & Ask.com, Danny Sullivan, Feb. 23, 2009
5. Laptop MagazineDetails/Subscribe
This detailed review compares Google with Yahoo!, scoring each on eight different factors. Yahoo! outscores Google for some elements that don't have to do directly with search (such as instant-messaging). However, Google is the overall winner because of its quick, accurate search results and better maps.
Review: Google vs. Yahoo, Joanna Stern, Aug. 16, 2007
Google ranks second to Live.com (but higher than Yahoo! Search and Ask.com), based on a comparison of results from the search query "Olympics." (The 2008 Olympics were taking place at the time of this review.) Google's results include a gadget to track Olympic events, plus plenty of video -- but Live.com provides even more information and makes it easier to access.
Review: Search Engines Compete for Olympic Audience, "Alex", Aug. 15, 2008
