Google is not the ONLY search engine!And
you thought ‘search’ is synonymous with ‘Google’. No doubt, Google
dominates
the search market – of the more than 5 billion online
searches Americans conducted in December, 49
percent were entered on
Google (as per the measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings.Competing
engines also saw a rise in activity, but their gains lagged Google's.
According to NetRatings, the company's closest competitors, Yahoo and
MSN, captured 21 percent and 11 percent of total search activity in
December, down from 22 percent and 14 percent, respectively, a year ago.Competing
engines are pursuing creative approaches to attract users, launching
site makeovers, specialized search features and prize giveaways. But in
order for innovations to cut into Google's dominance, searchers first
must be made aware of them.Some of the other search engines making a mark are summarized below:
• Microsoft msn search spearheaded a program this month called
search and win (http://www.msnsearchandwin.com/)that awards prizes for
some searches. Microsoft is even coming up with a new live search
facility with a utterly simple user interface. Try
http://search.live.com.
• Blingo (http://www.blingo.com) has been using search and win
system for almost a year, incorporating Google's search technology
• http://a9.com (http://www.amazon.com) – Amazon’s search engine
already offers a 1.57 percent discount to people who use its A9 search
engine.
• Bird's Eye (http://local.live.com/) - displays aerial views of maps
• SurfWax's (http://surfwax.com) suggests alternate search terms through an option feature
• Jeeve's' Smart Answers
(http://sp.ask.com/en/docs/about/site_features.shtml), provides
information about a search query above relevant links. It recently
underwent a radical image makeover abandoning Jeeves, the butler as its
mascot.
• Singingfish (http://www.singingfish.com) - for audio and video buffs
• Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com) – meant for broad searches, which collects results from multiple enginesThen
there are equally capable search engines like Gigablast
(http://www.gigablast.com) and kazzoom (http://www.kazzoom.com) which
promise to provide optimum results at lightning speeds.Go and try out some of these – who knows your search leads you to a whole new world!!