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The majority of internet users frequent one of the three major search engines, Bing, Yahoo, and Google. But do these sites really give you... Alternatives to Google Search

The majority of internet users frequent one of the three major search engines, Bing, Yahoo, and Google. But do these sites really give you the best available results? Google has many strong suits and numerous benefits for the user. However, it does have some shortcomings, mainly user privacy. If you’ve seen Microsoft’s recent Scroogled ads, and you value your email’s privacy, you might be rethinking your search engine choice. Whether you are concerned about privacy, or desire more tailored results from your search engine, here are some alternative options you may not have heard of.

Duck Duck Go

This search engine boasts of real privacy and never tracks its customers. This allows them to pop the filter bubble that is used to decipher what a typical search engine “thinks” you want to see, based on the tracking of your searches, likes, comments and even emails. The filter bubble is sometimes helpful in finding the things you like, however in time it can cause your searches to become cluttered with repetitive junk. An interesting feature of Duck Duck Go is their Goodies, which are specialized search queries that contribute instantly to your top results.

Alternatives to Google's Search Engine

Wolfram|Alpha

This internet searcher deems itself not as a typical search engine, but rather a “Computational Knowledge Engine”. The site lends you access to the World’s facts uses dynamic computations based on built-in data to bring you the answers you seek. Wolfram|Alpha covers a wide range of topics including Mathematics, Engineering, Weather, Culture and Media, People and History, Music, sports and games, and shopping.

Ark

This engine was created to specifically search people. Facebook can do this to an extent, however Ark can search through over 1 billion people on its database. Find new friends and business contacts or school friends and old acquaintances using more than 30 search filters like location, interest, high school, college, employment and much more.

The Introduction of Ark from Ark on Vimeo.

Blekko

The self proclaimed, spam-free search engine, Blekko feels that search and community go hand in hand, and that spam should have no place in search results. The purpose of the site is to bring you the best search results while being free of web-spam, and malware. The company believes in providing great search results by way of transparency and user privacy.The site makes use of a tool called slashtag which improves topic searches by grouping corresponding websites around the topic for the best possible results.

Would you change your search engine?

Not only could these search engines possibly be better options, but they may be the key to a revolution in search engines of the future. But as they say, old habits die hard, and some of you, regardless of Google’s lack of privacy, may find it hard to stray. How do you feel about your current search engine(s), and would you ever try out a new one?

[Images via geeksaber & mediapost]