Search engines are essential for anyone looking for information on the internet. The most popular search engine is Google, but there are many others to use and try.
Google has been the most popular search engine on the internet since 1998, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. It’s also not surprising that it’s so popular because of its advanced features and capabilities. For example, you can use Google to find videos, images and even news articles!
But just because Google search is the most popular search engine doesn’t mean it’s the best. So if you’re looking for an alternative to Google search, here are my top 5 Google search engine alternatives and the reasons why they work better.
Which alternative search engines are better than Google?
1. Ecosia Search Engine
Just use it, it’s my favourite search engine (though they could do with a dark theme, and I have had it set to my default search for a few years. The estimates say 40% of the internet’s carbon footprint is from Google alone. Google has stated they aim to use 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy by 2030, but Ecosia is already doing more than that now.
Ecosia powers itself from its own solar farm and seeks to change the way searching affects the environment by using 80% of its profits to plant trees across the world. They do use Microsoft Bing for their search data which means some results aren’t quite what you would expect or as smart as Google search, but if it takes a few extra searches to find what I’m looking for, that’s a few extra hits that are planting trees.
Ecosia averages that every 45 searches plants a tree, so with the amount I search, that’s a good few hundred extra trees going in the ground yearly. Though I am aware of the counterargument that planting trees in a world that is currently on fire is a bad idea, but it’s a move in the right direction. So I support that, and it’s undoubtedly more than Google does!
Ecosia is a B-certified corporation founded by Christian in 2009 after a trip around the world helped him understand the problems of deforestation. Its planted 154,746,676 trees so far (as of 27/07/2022).
Please give it a go, set it as your default search engine in your browser and download their hand app. It may take a few days to get used to it, but after that, you will be surprised you have ever used Google, and every search makes you feel a little bit better.
2. DuckDuckGo Search Engine
Second, on the list is DuckDuckGo, it’s been around a while and is the most popular privacy-based search engine, but I found the search results were a bit hit or miss. It uses Google search data but without the tracking, which coincidently seems to give Google search its edge. It knows what you’re thinking as it’s been rummaging in your online data. With DuckDuckGo, there is none of that, it’s privacy-friendly, your history does get saved, but in a way that is not tracked back to an individual user.
3. Bing Search Engine
Third on my list is Bing, the second most considerable after Google Search if going by size. I find search results aren’t quite what you expect, and you need to be quite specific in the search term you enter. If I were to search a WordPress function name, Google search would know what I’m after. Bing would require me to put WordPress in the search term for it to bring up the same search results. Though one thing Bing Search does have going for it, is the image search engine is way better than Google image search, it brings up actual images, not just stock images that are for sale.
4. Startpage Search Engine
A relatively new search engine (may be known as one of the best search engines in a few years when its market share increases) and probably one you haven’t heard of before. Similar to DuckDuckGo not as popular, but a little bit better. It does an excellent job of being privacy-focused, it doesn’t track search history, and when you click on links, it sends zero referring data with it to the site. So your never going to see Startpage listed as a referrer in your Google Analytics account or, even better, your Plausible account (find out why Plausible is better than Google Analytics). It also uses Google search engine data for its results, so it should bring back relevant results when searching.
5. Brave Search Engine
Brave may be another search engine you haven’t heard of. It’s the brainchild of the creator of JavaScript and co-founder of the browser Mozilla Firefox. The only search engine besides Bing that crawls its own search engine data. When searching terms I like my site to rank for, it showed me relatively high to the top of the page, so it gets a big thumbs up from me on bringing relevant search results up.
Its privacy is its biggest priority. It also comes bundled with its own Brave browser for a fully private, anonymous search and browsing experience.
Other search engines
Baidu (Chinese) – China’s largest search engine
Yahoo! – Still not sure how they are still going? Does anyone still use it?
Ask – Reached their peak 15 years ago, again not too sure why they are still going?
Search Encrypt – Uses Google, Bing, and Yahoo search data, I couldn’t even get it to search when looking at it, the search button did nothing ..?
Swisscows – German-language queries using Bing search data.
What are the six most commonly used search engines in the world?
Google search engine – 91% Percentage Market Share
Bing – 3.2% Percentage Market Share
YANDEX (Russian) – 1.52% Percentage Market Share
Yahoo! – 1.32% Percentage Market Share
Baidu (Chinese) – 0.77% Percentage Market Share
DuckDuckGo – 0.64% Percentage Market Share
Data from June 2022
What are the six most commonly used search engines for web searches in the UK?
Google – 91.74% Percentage Market Share
Bing – 5.14% Percentage Market Share
Yahoo! – 1.64% Percentage Market Share
DuckDuckGo – 0.87% Percentage Market Share
Ecosia – 0.32% Percentage Market Share
YANDEX (Russian) – 0.15% Percentage Market Share
Data from June 2022
Then to summarise
What is the best search engine?
Ecosia
What is the best search engine for 2022?
Ecosia
What is the best alternative search engine?
Ecosia
Let me know in the comments if I have missed any good search engines, especially if they are privacy-friendly!
