The Internet has become a one-shop-stop for all search enquiries. Google alone processes over 40,000 search queries per second on topics from pets to the Wall Street Journal. As of 2014, there are hundreds of search engines to choose from, all with unique benefits.
One of the easiest ways to choose a search engine would be to trust the general public’s opinion. Comscore frequently releases search engine rankings showing which search engines process the most queries. As of July 2014, Google was first with 67.6% of the share, Bing was second with 19.2% of the share, Yahoo was third with 9.8% of the share and Ask was fourth with 2.1% of the share.
However just because a search engine is well used, it does not necessarily mean that the search engine is best for you. Because there are so many engines to choose from, one could customise their search experience to their needs. Here are some of the top engines in detail:
Google is an excellent all purpose search engine. Users can custmoise their search for maps, images, blogs, videos, news and more all with the press of a button. The homepage is simple, clean, loads quickly and is claimed to load the best search results.
Bing is a Microsoft search engine and is the default on many Microsoft computers. Bing is well renown for it’s excellent map services with 3D views and simple navigation. In a market research test, users preferred bing to Google 2-1.
As you can see, Yahoo! search is not very aesthetically pleasing. It is liked for it’s ease of searching and options for categorising searches into jobs or news.
Ask is an excellent tool for find answers to specific questions. It allows you to find answers to plainly worded questions with relative ease. Users can draw on knowledge from experts or other users with experience.
The choice of a favourite search engine really is up to personal preference. It helps to not be closed minded because afterall, searching for information does require an open mind.
