Best Reviewed
Search Engines
- Best search engine overall Google *Est. $0
- Alternative search engine Bing *Est. $0
- Search engine for private browsing DuckDuckGo *Est. $0
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Best search engine overall
- Quick, relevant results
- Can search using uploaded image
- Voice search feature
- Advanced search tools
- Struggles to stay ahead of ad spam
- Tracks user information
Still the most popular search engine, Google has recently lost some of the market to Microsoft's Bing. However, nearly two-thirds of the Web searches done in the United States are done on Google. Experts credit Google for continuing to innovate. Google has added its popular voice search feature, once available only on smartphones, to its desktop search engine. Users can upload an image to search for similar images and text. Besides its core web search, Google also has the ability to search images, videos and blogs, and one can use Book Search to preview text from Google's selection of digitized books. However, Google constantly battles to limit advertising and unreliable content farm sites from its search results and critics have also questioned how well Google protects user privacy and information. To perform a thorough search, reviewers recommend using Google in combination with other search tools, such as Yahoo.
Library research professionals call Google the best search engines for most purposes. We found valuable charts at the University of California's Berkeley Library site. We also turned to reviews at The Daily Beast, CrowdFlower.com and NetworkWorld.com. The Washington Post and SearchEngineLand look at Google's privacy issues. WebProNews.com discusses Google's efforts to stay ahead of advertising spam.
Our Sources
1. University of California, Berkeley Library
Librarians recommend Google as the best search engine for most purposes. They also offer tips for finding the best results.
Review: Recommended Search Engines, University of California Librarians, June 21, 2010
Google was handling 70 percent of the searches in the United States when this was written. To stay ahead of Yahoo and Bing, in 2010 Google improved its user privacy protection and upgraded its smartphone search ability.
Review: Google vs. Bing vs. Yahoo, Carolyn Duffy Marsan, June 7, 2010
Bloggers tested Google in 2008, making this review a bit dated, but their results are consistent with more recent reviews. After comparative testing against other search engines, they find Google gives the most relevant results.
Review: Search Engine Relevance -- an Empirical Test, Brendan O'Connor, April 2008
Most users consider Google the place to go for the quickest and most relevant search results. There are few critical comments at this user review site, although some complain about advertising in the results.
Review: Search Engine Reviews, Contributors to Viewpoints.com
5. Time magazineDetails/Subscribe
Google strives to stay ahead its competition with new innovations, but Harry McCracken, a technology columnist and blogger, worries that the search engine could lose some of its simplicity. He criticizes the usefulness of features like Google Instant, which shows search results as you type.
Review: Google Steps Up Its Search-Engine Game, Harry McCracken, June 16, 2011
Google ranks number one in searches with 150 million users every month at the time of this report. It leads Yahoo! by 13 million monthly users. A chart shows the number of monthly visitors to the top 10 search engines.
Review: List of the Best Search Engines on the Internet, Editors of ListOfSearchEngines.info
Google gets a perfect 5 stars out of 5 and is the top search engine pick of an editor who says it can be used to find just about anything.
Review: Google Search, Editors of AppAppeal.com, As of July 2011
8. CNET
Reviewer Jay Greene tests the new Google Voice Search feature and is able to get relevant results searching the hard-to-pronounce name Zbigniew Brzezinski. He recommends using it in a quiet place, as nearby conversations can trip up the engine.
Review: Google Voice Search Offers Natural User Input, Jay Greene, June 14, 2011