On 6 May,
AdNews reported that, “Microsoft is funding a lobby group* in Australia with political know-how to raise questions about the ‘fairness’ of Google’s monopoly of the local search market.”
Microsoft presumably knows a thing or two about monopolies, and its argument in Australia will no doubt be bolstered by
government inquiries into Google’s dominance in the U.S. and Europe.
Of course, Google will argue that it’s easy for users to switch search engines, and it’s a tribute to the quality of the Google experience that so few users ever choose another search tool. According to
Hitwise, Google now accounts for 87.26% of all Australian searches. With market share like that, Google’s status as a verb meaning “web search” seems increasingly secure.
I think encouraging competition is the best way to keep Google, Bing and all search engines increasingly useful, so it makes sense to bypass Google from time to time and try something different.
Here are five search engines worth bookmarking:
Like its playful name, this search engine is easy to like. Search results seem more filtered for content quality than a Google search. And if you’ve ever worried about all the data Google has been collecting about you, DuckDuckGo will put you at ease. Its
privacy page proudly states: “DuckDuckGo does not collect or share personal information”.
Like Yahoo!’s early days as a directory, Blekko takes a human-curated approach to search, but with a crowd-sourced rather than professional team of curators. Blekko allows you to define sets of websites around a specific topic using slashtags.
As
Techcruch explains, “One Blekko user created a
slashtag for 2100 college websites. So anyone can do a targeted search for all the schools offering
courses in molecular biology, for example. Most searches are like this—they can be restricted to a few thousand relevant sites. The results become much more relevant and trustworthy when you can filter out all the garbage.”
Google’s recent “farmer” update, which pares back results from “content farm” sites,
has been seen as an algorithm-based “less is more” solution to the same problem that Blekko hopes to fix with slashtags. Again, Google seems to be trying to stay one step ahead of competitors.
Both Google and Bing are making search more social, with Google’s new
“+1” feature the equivalent of a “Facebook” Like for a search result. But if you want high quality, real-time social search, you’ve probably learned that no social site or search engine is exactly right.
Topsy hopes to put a change to that. It indexes and ranks search results based upon the most influential conversations people are having. Its
expert search tool limits results to the most influential social content generators. And its
social analytics tool is a good way to compare trending topics. Topsy won’t answer all your most pressing social questions, but it’s a good starting point.
If you’re looking for a local business, the Sensis** Yellow Pages site keeps things focused. It’s got must-have features like interactive maps, and nice-to-have features, like a search refinement option that shows you businesses open on Saturdays, Sundays or both. If it had a 21st century name like Blekko or Topsy you’d probably even think it was cool.
We know Google is committed to
not being evil, and it’s far from a slacker in the corporate giving area, but it still keeps most of what it earns. GiveFind is a new U.K.-based search engine that promises to always donate the majority of the money it earns to good causes.
Like a digital Robin Hood,
GiveFind says, “The revenue we generate from advertising in the lucrative search industry is redirected away from wealthy corporate shareholders to support good causes.”
The search experience isn’t great, but the idea is good. As high-quality search becomes increasingly commoditised, where the dollars from your clicks go could be as much a differentiator as where the clicks themselves take you.
**Sensis is a client of DTDigital.