Examples of search engines

Most of the time, people are confused between search engines and web browsers. For example, they mislead between Google and Chrome. They think Google and Chrome both are search engines or web browsers. But it is not correct. Google is a search engine, while Chrome is a web browser.

For the brief, Google, Yahoo, and Bing are popular search engines. This chapter will describe to you what is a search engine and its example as well.

What is search engine?

A search engine is a software program, which is designed to perform web searches on the World Wide Web (www). You can call the search engines as an answering machine. Search engines discover, process and organize internet content and provide it to users when searching for any information.

Here are a few important points:

• A search engine is a platform on which a user can search the internet content.
• Google, Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, and DuckDuckGo are popular search engines. Google is one of the most used search engines worldwide that is used with the Chrome browser. So, almost everyone is familiar with it.
• According to the research, around 92.16% of searches are happening on Google, 2.18 on Bing, 1.52 on Yahoo, 1.14 on Baidu, and so on.

How does a search engine work?

The three important tasks are performed by a search engine when a user search for anything on it: Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking.

Whenever a user searches for information on Google, he/she needs to type a query in the search bar. The search engine crawls the thousands of web pages on behalf of the user using their own crawlers.

Note: The web crawlers are commonly referred to as the search engine spiders or bots.

Crawl: Scour the internet for data.

Index: This process stores and organizes the content that is found from the crawling process. Basically, this step indexes the web pages which are relevant for the user's query to be displayed.

Rank: This process ranks the best content at the top, which is the best answer for the user's query. It means that the most relevant result shows on top of the web.

Top 10 search engines

In this chapter, we have a list of the top 10 search engines. These search engines are put in the sequence according to their rank in popularity and usage. Search engines are listed by the statistics of Statcounter.

1. Google
2. Bing
3. Yahoo
4. Baidu
5. DuckDuckGo
6. Yandex
7. Ask.com
8. Ecosia
9. AOL
10. Internet Archive

In this list, you have seen that Google is on top of the list. Google is the most used and popular search engine because of its simplicity, easy interface, and understandability.

Now, we will discuss each of the given search engines one by one in this chapter below:

Google

Google takes first place in search engines. According to the research of statista and Statcounter, around 92.16% of searches are happening on Google, demanding in the market.

If you want any of the information, just Google it!

Google offers easy to use interface to the users; that is why it is the most popular search engine. According to the calculation of Alexa, Google is ranking at the top and secured 1^st rank all over the world and in the United States as well.

Why Google is in demand or popular?

Google is in demand because of its simplicity and easy interface. It can be easily learned to use.

Pros

• Google provides quality search and provides the best result to its users.
• It offers a simple and easy-to-use interface.
• Google regularly updates its algorithms to provides the best services to the users.
• It is available in about 109 languages. So, it is almost accessible all over the world.

Cons

• It provides too many results back or returns too many webpages to the user, in which the best information is difficult to find.
• It delivers the information with several advertisements.
• It uses cookies that store user data.

Bing

Bing is a Microsoft product now, which is known as Microsoft Bing. Bing has now renamed to Microsoft Bing in October 2020.

Microsoft Bing is another popular search engine that takes place after Google. Although the searching ratio on Bing is less than Google, but it takes second place after Google. Around 2.18% of searches are happening on Microsoft Bing.

By default, Microsoft Bing comes with the Windows operating system. Bing has a reward program for starters. It allows to collect the points while searching. You can redeem these points at Microsoft or Windows stores, which is a good perk.

Pros

• Microsoft Bing comes with the Windows Operating system by default. So, you do not need to install it separately.
• Microsoft Bing ranks home pages, not blogs.
• Microsoft Bing has a larger character limit than Google. It allows for 40 characters title while Google for 25 only.

Cons

• When it comes to comparison, Bing provides a slow search result comparing with Google.
• It does not provide a simple interface like Google.
• Bing + Yahoo collectively are not close to Google.

Yahoo

Before Google entered the market, Yahoo was the most popular search engine. When Google came into use, Yahoo's popularity began to wane and it went off the market. Nowadays, very few people use the Yahoo search engine.

In the United States, Yahoo is the default search engine for Mozilla Firefox since 2014 till now. Don't be confused between the Yahoo search engine and the Mozilla Firefox web browser. Yahoo is the most used search engine in the United States. Its market share in the United States is 49.15%.

According to the calculation of Alexa, the world rank of Yahoo is 12, and the US rank is 4 now.

Pros

• Yahoo is a search engine that offers comprehensive organic results.
• Other than the search engine, Yahoo also offers Yahoo mail, Yahoo Answers, and many other apps.
• Unlike other search engines, Yahoo has a better shopping search feature.
• Yahoo is the default search engine of Mozilla Firefox.

Cons

• One of the biggest disadvantages of Yahoo is that it provides undated search results and also without labeling the ads and original data. This makes it difficult for the user to differentiate between ads and useful information.
• Yahoo + Bing collectively are not close to Google.
• Yahoo had not updated itself regularly; that is why it has gone from the market. So, it is not accepted by users.

Baidu

Baidu is the most popular and most used search engine in China because its available in Chinese language. Apart from China, it is actively used in Hong-Kong, Taiwan, US, and the Republic of Korea. In India, it is not directly accessible. You can open and use the Baidu search engine using the following link www.baidu.com on the proxysite website (www.proxysite.com).

Baidu was founded in 2000. It has a global market share between 0.68% to 11.2%. Basically, Baidu is a Chinese search engine because it is designed in Chinese language.

It is currently ranking in the top 4 worldwide and secures 2^nd rank in China in Alexa ranking. You can access the Baidu search engine worldwide, but it is only available in Chinese language. This is why, outside China, Baidu collects very less popularity and holds few influences because it serves only one market.

Pros

• Baidu offers excellent features and quality search.
• It provides standard search features like audio search, text search, and image search, etc. It means that a user can search for something on Baidu using text, image, and audio as well.
• Apart from all the above features, Baidu has an advertising option for businesses to advertise their products.

Cons

• Baidu is specifically designed for China countries and only available in the Chinese language. So, it limits the users to access it. So, the people who are not familiar with the Chinese language cannot use it.
• Baidu has several strong rivals, such as Alibaba, and Tencent, which strongly compete with it.
• Baidu serves its service to a limited number of users who know the Chinese language.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a web search engine, which is available in multiple languages. DuckDuckGo is also abbreviated as DDG. DuckDuckGo is not so popular as Google, but at least you have heard the name of this search engine.

One best benefit of using this search engine, DuckDuckGo does not store the user's personal information. So, do not need to worry about your data that the boogeyman is watching you through your computer screen.

DuckDuckGo is the best choice for the user who wants to keep their information private because it does not store and collect the user's private information.

Pros

• Like the Google and Baidu search engines, it also allows for text, image, and audio search features that makes search easy and relevant.
• Another interesting feature of DuckDuckGO is - it has zero-click information. All the best results are shown on the first page.
• One of the best advantages of DuckDuckGo is - It does not track and store the user's data.
• DuckDuckGo offers a simple and friendly user interface, which is easy to use.

Cons

• Like other search engines, such as Google and Bing, DuckDuckGo (DDG) does not have its search index.
• It uses other source's data to respond to the question inquired by the user because it does not have its own data. In contrast, Google has algorithms to crawl the web and find the best result for the user.
• DuckDuckGo is a very less used search engine in India.
• Search results are not personalized n this search engine because of no data usage.

Yandex

Two Russian developers designed the Yandex under a project and patent in 1990 under the company named Arkadia. It is a web search engine owned by Russia. According to Wikipedia, Yandex operates the largest search engine in Russia.

The term Yandex stands for the "Yet Another Index" after adopting in 1993. In 1997, yendex.ru domain launched for Yandex. It offers an interactive interface so that the user can use it easily.

In Russia, Yandex is a popular search engine. It powers more than half of the searches in Russia. Other than Russia, it is widely also used in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Ukraine.

According to the calculation of Alexa, Yandex is ranking in top 30 websites in all over the world and takes position 4 in Russia.

Pros

• Yandex serves various features to its users, which makes it interesting and useable. It provides music feature, online translator, cloud storage to store the data online that can be available anytime and anywhere to its users.
• For those businesses who want to target the audience, Yandex can be the best option for them to use.
• Yandex search engine is available in English (which is the most used language in the world) and Cyrillic So, almost everyone can easily use it.

Cons

• It is almost the same as other search engines to reach out to the users and collecting their data.
• The biggest disadvantage of Yandex is that it collects the data of users like the other search engines.
• Yandex is tested as a worse search engine for security and privacy than the other like Google or Apple Safari.

Ask.com

Ask is a web search engine, which was formerly known as Ask Jeeves initially, but now it is redirected to ask.com. Ask Jeeves is disappeared since February 2006. You can access this search engine using the www.ask.com link.

Ask search engine is a bit different from other search engines. Basically, it is based on the pattern of question/answer. Most of the questions (user queries) are answered by other users on this search engine.

It has a bit messy interface having too much data on the home page. One of the biggest disadvantages of this Ask search engine is - it returns a lack of quality results compared to Google, Yahoo, and other search engines.

Pros

• You can take it as an advantage or disadvantage. Basically, the Ask search engine follows the pattern of question/answer. Most of the questions (user queries) are answered by other users on this search engine.
• Although to overcome this problem, ask.com takes help from an unnamed third-party search engine.
• This search engine secures the seventh position in top search engines as accounted in January 2020.
• As this search engine works like a question/answer forum, the user will get the answers with the experience of the responder who faced and interacted with the problem.

Cons

• This can come into the list of disadvantages as well. Ask search engine follows the pattern of question/answer. Most of the questions (user queries) are answered by other users on this search engine. This process requires a lot of data because it might be possible that one answer is not correct as on other search engines.
• The results returned by the Ask search engine are lack quality comparing with other search engines, such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo as well.

Ecosia

Ecosia is a search engine, which is a Berlin-based (Germany) social business founded in 2009. It offers a simple and easily usable interface like other search engines to its users. The meaning of Ecosia - the search engine that plants trees. You can access this search engine using the www.ecosia.com link. You have planted 0 trees if you never used Ecosia.

To plant a single tree, you need to do around 45 searches on it. Keep sign in with Ecosia search engine and track your impact (trees you planted) shows on its home page.

Ecosia makes a big contribution of its profit to plant the trees all over the world, which is a good step ever taken by someone. Eco-friendly option has now become one of the default search engines of Google Chrome.

Ecosia is basically focused on ecological issues like deforestation and it donates 80% of its profit to non-profit organizations. You can also become a part of this movement by signing with Ecosia and around your 45 searches will help to plant a tree.

Pros

• Ecosia contributes a big portion of its profit towards the plantation around the world. It is a good step taken by someone.
• If you also want to do something for our nature and contribute with Ecosia, sign in with Ecosia and around your 45 searches will help to plant a tree.
• This search engine also keeps tracking your record of how many plants you have planted.
• Ecosia has a simple, normal, and easy-to-use interface like the other search engines.
• Ecosia protects the privacy of the user as it considers itself as a social business.

Cons

• Ecosia either uses Bing or Yahoo search engine, not Google, to crawl the web data which is not as good as Google.
• Sometimes, Ecosia does not provide relevant search results for the query asked by the user.
• Image search results are limited on Ecosia.
• Whenever it asks for feedback of Ecosia, the only downside of Ecosia is that its search engine partner is Bing. Bing does not deliver search results as good as Google.

AOL

AOL stands for America Online. In 1985, it was first come into existence. As the name implies, AOL search engine comes with all the required functionality of a search engine. It offers different news categories search options on its home page to see the latest news updates.

In past days, AOL was a famous search engine and was on the top of the world's search engines. At that same time, AOL had its own search engine called NetFind. In 1999, NetFind was renamed to AOL Search. Currently, it ranks lower, but it still falls in the top 10 search engines list.

AOL search engine is an American web portal that facilitates various other services with it, such as web portal, email, dial-up service, and instant messaging. Note that search history is only available to the users who logged in to the system in AOL search engine.

Pros

• AOL search engine offers an easy-to-use interface and the search results returned by it are understandable.
• AOL search engine adds various services with it, such as web portal, email, dial-up service, and instant messaging.
• AOL provides different access to its users for search like web search, image, shopping, news, and local search as well.
• Along with the internet suffering, it is a good entertainer as well. It offers several online games that you can directly play on AOL without downloading them on your system.
• Online gaming has two advantages: First, you do not need to install games in your system, which saves storage. Second, it lets you save to get bore.

Cons

• In past days, AOL was a famous search engine and was on the top of the world's search engines, but now it ranks down.
• It does not provide search results as good as Google.
• Currently, AOL is very less used around the world.
• AOL offers online gaming on which users waste their time. Once the users start playing these games, they waste a lot of their precious time in it.

Internet Archive

Internet Archive search engine is basically an American digital library whose main objective is to "universal access to all knowledge". The official website of Internet Archive search engine is archive.org, and you can access this search engine using the https://archive.org/search.php link.

This search engine is different from the other search engine. Basically, it is a very useful tool to trace the record of old websites. This search engine will show how a website has looked like since 1996.

Internet Archive is a bit difficult and complex search engine, which is not as easy as the other search engine discussed above. For more details, go for its official website.

Pros

• Internet Archive is a search engine that facilitates the users to trace the history of old websites. Using this search engine, you can find out how an old website has looked since 1996.
• This search engine allows searching using the text content/query, image, and audio search as well.
• With the help of Internet Archive, you can get in-depth details for any website like website's growth and all.

Cons

• Although this search engine comes in the list of top 10 search engines, but it secures the last place in this list.
• Internet Archive takes last place in top 10 search engines. But this tenth position also varies, and sometimes it might be 11-12 or high also.
• Internet Archive search engine tracks views of the item on the website of user stats.

Its interface is a bit difficult to understand because the search results returned it is messy, complex and less understandable.