Search Engine Review

Reviews of search engines

Search engines can pick through millions of web pages in seconds, pulling out exactly the information you need -- at least, that's the goal. Though search engines are free of charge, companies continue to compete to provide the most relevant information and present it in the most usable way. In addition to searching basic web pages, the best search engines help you search for images, videos, news items and blogs. Advanced search features let you filter results by language, date, domain (for example, .edu for scholarly sources) and much more. Some search engines also give direct answers to factual questions and provide shortcuts to calculate currency conversions, check weather or traffic, and more. Search toolbars can be integrated into your web browser, making Internet searches more convenient. For quick, efficient searching of your hard drive or network as well as the web, see our separate report on desktop search engines.

Research librarians and professional information specialists are experts in evaluating search engines, so we found the most credible recommendations at two such sites. The University of California, Berkeley updated its list of the top three search engines in February 2009. Its third recommendation has changed from Ask.com to Exalead.com since we last updated this report, so it's apparent they really do re-evaluate their choices carefully. The recommendations at InfoPeople.com, by information consultant Joe Barker, were updated in September 2008.

Comparison tests of search engines are also very useful, because they take a scientific approach, comparing the top results from two or more search engines to the same queries. While quite a few excellent tests were reported in 2005 and 2006, search engines have evolved enough since then to make these earlier reviews quite outdated. However, we found quite a few more recent comparison tests, notably from Dolores Labs, comparing the three most popular search engines based on 500 random queries. We rank this test highest partly because the testers didn't know which search engine they were evaluating.

On the horizon is a brand new search engine (and technology) developed by British physicist Stephen Wolfram, called Wolfram Alpha. Instead of matching search terms against a huge database, Wolfram Alpha will actually compute answers to factual questions asked in natural language. The author, winner of a MacArthur "genius grant," has already developed successful software called Mathematica, used by scientists, so experts say he has a good track record. Wolfram Alpha is being tested now; you can sign up now to receive updates and even apply to become one of the testers at WolframAlpha.com.