Search Engines

Best Internet search engines

Google (http://www.google.com) remains the established leader among search engines, accounting for 45% of all searches. Expert reviews also rank Google at the top, not so much for the relevance of its search results as for its speed and ease of use. In addition to standard Internet searches, Google offers more and more specialized searches, including image search, video search and blog search. Search Engine Watch recommends Google especially for news searches. You can also search Usenet messages at Google Groups, search for online products at Froogle, and search inside books at Google Books. Local Search finds businesses in any area you choose, complete with a map or even an aerial satellite view. If you visit the Google Lab, you can try beta versions of even newer search tools.

However, information specialists (such as reference librarians) recommend using more than one search engine for best results. Also, the most recent comparative reviews test search engines for the relevance of the first ten results, not just for features and ease of use. Top ranking for relevance varies with the review and the number of search engines tested, but none of these reviews give Google top ranking. A Keynote Systems test using over 2,000 people performing searches finds little difference in relevance for results from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com and AOL (although users prefer Google's ease of use). An Information Today review comparing the relevance of Ask.com and Google results finds no significant difference either.

MSN Search gets top ranking in the SEO Resource Center tests, the only review finding any significant difference in the relevance of results from the top search engines. Yahoo! comes in second in these tests, and Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves) ranks slightly ahead of Google. The study is based on nearly 4,000 local, informational and "how to" searches, comparing 25,000 pages of search results. A bonus was given for relevant results on especially difficult searches, such as "the most popular TV show of 1975." (Google did excel on that one.) The review suggests that because Google ranks sites partly on the basis of how many other authoritative sites link to them, Google doesn't perform as well as MSN on local searches – for local auto dealers, for example. However, Google does include Google Local listings at the top for such searches.

MSN Search ranks last in the Keynote Studies tests, not for relevance but for features and ease of use. However, you can get the same results in a nicer format with Windows Live Search (www.live.com), which is getting a lot of attention in reviews right now. (Windows Live also feeds its search results to Alexa and to Amazon's A9 Search.) A review at ZDNet concludes that Windows Live is "a vast improvement over MSN Search" in terms of features and ease of use. It's unique in that search results are presented on one long page, so that users scroll down the page -- no more clicking "next" to see more. (Some users have performance problems with this.) You can also control how much description is given about each site, and create macros to customize, save and share searches. You can even specify (and save) the sites to search, thus creating your own vertical search engine. (A toolbar is also available; see the section below.)

Windows Live Search gets special praise for its image search, again because of the amount of customization offered. A slider bar controls the size of thumbnails, and you can choose a filmstrip view that presents a column of thumbnails with full-size images on the main screen. When you hover a mouse over a thumbnail, a box displays information such as the file size and image dimensions. Windows Live offers other features, too. Academic Search includes citations you can export to EndNote or BibText, and PC World names Windows Live Local as the best mapping service as of July 2006. A beta mobile version is designed for PDAs, Smartphones and cell phones.

Amazon.com's A9 search engine draws results from Windows Live Search, also listing results in one long page, but customizes the layout in a different way, in columns of your choice. So, for example, you can see images, book excerpts, and encyclopedia articles related to the topic, all at the same time -- changing the columns you want to see at any time. You can add your choice of additional columns, but Amazon has discontinued the special features that once gave it top ranking among search toolbars.

Yahoo! is much more popular among users than MSN Search or Windows Live, however, and ranks second in quite a few comparative reviews as well, not only for relevance of results (as in the SEO Resource Center study above), but for features and ease of use. Although users prefer Google in the Keynote Systems study, they like Yahoo! especially for local search and image search, and find its home page appealing. Search Engine Watch actually ranks Yahoo! above Google, also primarily for its local search and well-updated image search. Librarians at the UC Berkeley Library, one of the most trusted sites reviewing search engines, also recommend Yahoo! as well as Google.

The UC Berkeley Library also recommends using Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves) as a third search engine, in place of its earlier recommendation of Teoma, which Ask.com purchased. Many reviews praise Ask.com for its improvements, not only for the relevance of its results, but for cleaning up confusion between regular search results and paid listings -- a problem in the past. A review at Information Today finds the Ask.com search results just as relevant as those presented at Google. For basic reference searches, Ask.com has a slight advantage because the top result is usually from a prominent web reference source. Results also include a set of cross-referencing terms to help users refine searches. A similar review by Walter S. Mossberg, technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, also finds Ask.com results as relevant as those at Google, and notes that Ask.com searches blogs, online communities and social networks well.

Clusty, a search engine that organizes results into useful subtopics, is also recommended by the UC Berkeley Library as worth trying. When you're in the mood to explore new search engines, several others get recommendations in current reviews. The Keynote Systems study notes that AOL would rank as high as Ask.com if it were free -- which it now is. ExactSeek.com, though still in beta, offers the option to find only pages that include forms -- subscription forms, for example. Become.com, a consumer product search engine, lets you filter "research" results to show just reviews, buying guides, forum discussions or product details. PC World recommends Kosmix.com for well-categorized results for health search topics. Both Blinkx and SingingFish specialize in audio and video search, but SingingFish gives you more control over the type of files searched.

Metasearch engines

As noted above, Info.com draws its search results from more than one search engine. Search tools like this are called metasearch engines. At first glance, this idea is a no-brainer. If information specialists recommend searching beyond Google, why not search several search engines all at once? The main problem is that some metasearch engines don't even include Google results, and many mix paid listings in with regular search results, identifying ads as such only in tiny, faint print. This is why the UC Berkeley Library recommends against using any metasearch engine, though they make an exception for Dogpile because of some redeeming features.

Dogpile, also the favorite among users in the most recent survey at Search Engine Watch, combines results from the top four search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. You can also mix in results from LookSmart (though the SEO Resources study ranks its relevance last of all) and from About.com. If you want to see results from a search engine separately, the results are displayed in a column. That means you can compare columns of results from different search engines. Dogpile claims to highlight the unique results from each search engine in its column, but accuracy slips a bit on this score. The main drawback is that Dogpile uses only faint, fine type to identify paid listings, mixing them right in with regular search results.

Editors at Search Engine Watch prefer Jux2, which puts paid listings in separate boxes, making the distinction very clear. Results are from Google, Yahoo and MSN, with sites that appear in two or more search engines ranking higher than those that appear only in one. You can also see the unique results from each search engine on a separate page, with the listings from more than one search engine, or different search engines, listed below. Advanced Search lets you specify the domain types you want; so for example, you could view only results from .edu sites -- or any other domain such as .org or .gov or .uk sites, etc.

Best search toolbars

The top search engines also offer toolbars you can add to your web browser. They don't take up much space across the top of the browser window, and usually work together well so it's practical to install more than one at a time. Most eliminate pop-up ads, and allow quite a bit of customization so you can add the specific buttons and features you like. The MSN Toolbar adds tabbed browsing and RSS news feeds to Internet Explorer, making it more like Firefox. (For more information, see our report on the best web browsers .)

The Google Toolbar is the favorite among users and reviews, because it makes it quicker to search Google. This toolbar is available in two versions; one gives you more features but less privacy, sending information to Google about the URL of pages you visit. (This is the only way a search engine toolbar can offer a feature like keeping your search history online, for example, so you can access it from more than one computer.) The recent news of the Justice Department's subpoena of search engine records -- though not asking for information about individual users -- has brought privacy concerns into the limelight again. It's a good idea to read the Privacy page about any toolbar you consider installing, so you know exactly what information is kept on the search engine's servers.

Comparing search toolbars, PC Magazine shares top ranking between Google and the Dogpile Toolbar. The latter lets you search Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask all at once or separately. There are buttons for white pages and yellow pages, and you can also add any type of ticker feed, including news or blogs. The ticker can be customized for speed, size and scrolling direction. You can also search any word or phrase from a web page or even from a Word document, by selecting it and right-clicking your mouse.

Windows Live Search offers a toolbar that includes OnFolio free of charge. OnFolio is an application that clips web pages or sections and organizes them into folders. A PC Magazine tester couldn't make this part of the toolbar work, but the review concludes that the toolbar itself runs well on Firefox as well as on Internet Explorer. While the MSN Toolbar makes installing Windows Desktop Search mandatory, Windows Live Search makes this optional.

Important Features: Search engines

Reviews say these features are important to consider in selecting a search engine. Although it's easy enough to try various Internet-based browsers and search toolbars, there are a few additional issues to consider.

• Check browser compatibility. Not all search engines and toolbars work with the increasingly popular Firefox browser. In general, experts say it's a good idea to take a moment to back up important files and set a system-restore point before installing new software.

• Consider search engine disclosure policies. At the very least, you should be able to tell at a glance which listings are paid ads, and which are unbiased search results ranked for real relevance to your search. While reviews usually prefer ads to be very distinctive, many users say they like more subtle ads that aren't distracting; Google gets high marks in this respect for its easily identified text-ad sidebar.

• Try search engines that filter search results into subtopics. For ambiguous or broad topics, this can help you find what you want, even if it would otherwise be on page ten of the listed results. Clusty, Grokker, Ujiko, Mooter and quite a few others do this.

• Try several search engines for options on how results are displayed. Most people prefer a simple, uncluttered layout that makes it easy to skim through results. This is one of the aspects where the "new challengers" excel, so you may want to try several of them to see if you prefer them to Google's simple layout.
  • Previews make it easier to decide whether or not you want to click on a web page or other file. Ask.com, A9 and Exalead do this well, while Windows Live excels in previews for image search.
  • Customizable columns dividing results into web pages, images, book sources, references and more is a specialty of A9.
  • Node maps show subtopics. Try Mooter, Ujiko or Grokker 2.2.
  • Sidebars suggesting more search terms are helpful, especially if you're not quite sure about the best search terms. Ask, Clusty, Ujiko and several others do this.

• Consider privacy and security. Users vary in how much information they're willing to have accessible to a server on the net, even when privacy policies are reassuring. If it makes you flinch to see something like "Welcome, [your name]" when you search, then choose a search engine that's less personalized and more anonymous.

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

# of picks	Search Engine
8	Google
6	Yahoo!
6	Ask.com
4	MSN Toolbar
4	Clusty
3	Windows Live Search
2	Windows Live Toolbar
2	Google Toolbar
2	A9 Toolbar
2	Yahoo Toolbar
1 each	A9, Dogpile, Info.com, Jux2, MSN Search, Museseek, PreFound, Rollyo, Windows Live Toolbar

Google is the clear winner among Internet search engines, but Yahoo!, Ask.com and Clusty get plenty of recommendations. A9 and the new Windows Live Search offer the most customized layouts.

Sponsored links