I'm stunned that you didn't include Snap.com, the biggest, fastest-growing Web 2.0 search engine (higher Alexa than anyone except Dogpile). Certainly, we pass your "better-than-Google" test with our unique visual interface that lets users preview websites, bypass the spammy ones, and get to the right page faster. We're also a viable business with that processes millions of searches, has thousands of paying advertisers and a committed user base, and distributes Snap Preview Anywhere, the most popular and innovative new website enhancement on the Net.

Paul D. Angles
Marketing Director
Snap.com

1) Easy - A little "new" icon to indicate the engines that have been added since the last list. Perhaps also a second list to indicate those that were removed.
2) Medium - I like the descriptions next to each engine, but how about going back to the categories? Categories are difficult since you don't want to pigeonhole anyone, but broad things like vertical, social, recommendation, visualization, etc. Perhaps a table since some might fall into multiple categories.
3) Hard - Enable a comment blog for each engine so people can hash it out. By the way, I like Snap. Any Bill Gross engine should be included by default.

Keep up the good work!

I have to say that Gokita is a very comprehensive metasearch engine (previewable results, clustered results, and well ranked results) and the fact that it's 100% ad-free makes it even better. I can be rest assured that when I click a link in my search results that it's not going to be an affiliate link or sponsored link. That's very assuring to day as many search engines are trying many ways to earn from their users.

How come Gokita wasn't mentioned in this list? Probably it would be mentioned in the near future!

Our Server is being Updated ...

We'll be back in a few minutes

Also all the suggestions for improvement are being noted - first on our To Do list is to introduce categories into the March edition. Also ways to submit search engines and (in time) maybe even enable readers to vote on them.

www.answers.com. This is my 1st search engine, it's based on google, but much much better

Technorati? Also a blog searchengine.

We have developed a new type of meta search service(agent55 . com), and your article really helped us find new and exciting engines!

Thanks a bunch!

http://www.libraryhouse.net/blog/2007/03/02/search-engines-emerge-from-googles-shadow/?=r

Thank you for your comments!

1. I understand your preference for goshme in terms of reach, but usability? IMHO, opening different browser windows for search results and having to make 3 or 4 clicks before you see actual results is not the best scenario in terms of usability and user experience.

2. There's no question about goshme's larger depth in terms of number of search providers, which leads me to wonder how will they keep up with the relevance, availability and quality of 2700+ search engines (and growing). Are they willing to guarantee an acceptable level of search quality with that overwhelming number of third party applications?

3. Our approach is different. They (goshme) provide a ranking of search engine results based (I guess) on user's search terms, filters set and (I'm guessing here) an algorithm. Our approach is more straightforward: we let the users choose the search provider (from those available) and instantly they get the original results, just one click involved, compared to three or more clicks (and opening windows) in goshme.

4. We are currently in the neighborhood of 300 search providers at CrossEngine.com
, and we plan to maintain it under 500. Our focus is not the quantity of search tools but their quality, availability and relevance. We think the search world is not just Google but not 3000+ engines neither. That's why your list is only about the first 100 engines, not 3000, isn't it?

Above all, congrats and thanks for your great job putting together this valuable (and becoming very popular) monthly list, look forward to keep hearing from you.

Xooda - The Smart Metasearch
http://www.xooda.com

It covers upto 16 major search engines and provide the most localized results.
It is helpful to users from different country to find the most relevent things.

You must love it!
Have a try!

"Computer Maganizes", under Informatics & Internet
"Adictions" , under health

their may be others, but i didn't check

#50 CrossEngine vs. GoshMe. Mr. Sosa is rightfully proud of CrossEngine. And his point about quantity vs. quality is well taken. While some have said that the Top 100 has too many metasearch Search Engines in it, there is no doubt that this is a highly competitive Category. In the March Update of the Top 100, I will take a hard look at the Metasearch Engines. (Note, please see #53 - Xooda - The Smart Metasearch engine and #54 - AGENT 55; two new entrants.)

#52 Likewise, Categories (or subcategories) such as Video Search will be addressed. AOL Video Search and SearchVideo.com (and also www.PureVideo.com) will be mixed in with the current Video Search contenders like blinkx.

#55, Si, gennio.com es un search engine muy bueno!

#56 A list of "newcomers" is an excellent idea and one being
considered. The "Top 100 Alternative Search Engines" is the flagship list that is my personal attempt to tell the search
community: "Of the zillions of search engines out there, here are the Best of the Best."

Note: I am ten minutes away from talking with KoolTorch (www.kooltorch.com) Kool is right! Take a look! -Charles

First of all I think we’re not in the same front line.

GoshMe deliveries Searchable Databases, including General Engines, but its main focus is on the Specialized Databases from reliable sources and with content you can't find in other places (hard-to-find information).

Differently, it seems to me that CrossEngine is more directed to the day-to-day, less specialized information. For this, GoshMe clearly takes more time and requires more steps than CrossEngine/Google.

But if you’re looking for deeper / specialized information, you have to make use of the millions of Specialized Databases out there and many of them are part of the Deep Web, meaning that they contain information not indexed by Conventional Engines as Google. One quick example:

Go to MCEER, an earthquake specialized database, and submit the query ‚Äútsunami‚Ä?. You‚Äôll get the following: 747 high-quality and full-text results.

Searching Google for the same query (tsunami) but limiting results only to MCEER you get this: only 197 results, and very few of them are from the MCEER’s database, but from the links found on its home page.

Thus, there are several high-quality results Google ignores. GoshMe aims to point you directly to the results page of relevant specialized databases, like MCEER for tsunami.

As a matter of fact, MCEER and other estimated 20 million Deep Web databases are not in GoshMe's index yet; that’s why we need to keep adding them. And yes, we’re going to keep up with the relevance, availability and quality of 2700+ search engines (and growing).

Regarding usability, let me compare the two engines for one search that fits GoshMe’s proposal (deeper / specialized information).

If you search GoshMe for ‚Äúhalothane‚Ä?, an anesthetic, for example, it returns the following high-quality and reliable databases (check it out, results are real good, better than Google):
1 - Canadian Journal of Anesthesia;
2 - PubMed Central;
3 - MDchoice.com;
4 - HighWire Press;
5 - Scirus - Pharmacology;
6 - BioHunt - Molecular Biology Finder
7 - Scirus - Neuroscience
+ three General Engines:
8 - Ask.com;
9 - Google;
10 - Yahoo!.

Databases come with description and categorization; the user just needs to click on them to find the final results. So, it’s a three (3) steps process: 1 – search GoshMe, 2 – click on GoshMe’s result; 3 – click on the Database result.

If you search CrossEngine for "halothane" you get Google results. For different / deeper / specialized information, maybe one could go to CrossEngine's Reference tab, but then it comes with a list of names which most users don’t know and, even if they knew, they wouldn’t know which are the best for halothane. Anyway, it’s a four (4) steps process: 1 – one click to search Google (the default engine); 2 – another click on the Reference tab; 3 – another on the database of the Reference tab; 4 – a final click on the results of the database chosen.

But the most important aspect is: if you don’t find your answer in the first results even Google can require 10, 20 or more clicks (passing pages, clicking on results) until you find the answer, if so.

I used this ideal health related example because I'm pretty sure GoshMe is still far from its concept of delivering the best databases. So far there are very few databases indexed (health is the best covered category, with 100 DBs) and yet some critical ranking problems we're solving. But once we have the concept working smoothly, I can assure we’ll have a top search tool with high usability, enormous reach and utility.

We’re working hard towards it and great improvements are coming in 2007. We're also looking for partners to speed up the process.

I think Charles has perceived GoshMe’s concept and final goals. Being elected the engine of the month was much more than we expected and we’re now even more motivated to make GoshMe happen.

Sorry for the oversized post.

Regards,

Rafael Costa
Co-founder

Great work. I also didn't know there were so many engines.

One that has come to my attention is SearchBigDaddy (http://www.searchbigdaddy.com). It has a following of over 25,000 people who get credits for using it. Have you heard of it? What is your opinion, or anyone else's for that matter?

The Future of Search? No problem! :-)

Of course it depends on who you ask, and since you asked me, I would suggest looking up the articles of Kevin Ryan, e.g., "What Will It Take To Unseat Google?" (01/10/07) on iMedia (www.imediaconnection.com) along with his colleague Jason Prescott, "Why Google Will Lose Dominance." (02/12/07) or Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing
(http://dondodge.typepad.com)or my January commentary on the Top 100 List (Read/WriteWeb Archives January 29, 2007).
Have you read John Battelle's The Search? (October 2006)

It's so easy to look at all of these colorful, interesting, fluid, interactive creations and think of them as just novelties compared to a "serious" behemoth like Google.
But I hope that just by reading this one column of comments from CrossEngine, goshme, Agent 55, KoolTorch, Xooda, et al, you get that sense that these people are Serious; if you have the time, they can show you things that will make Google look like an 8-track cassette player!

I'll leave you with a little hint: Look up and read President George H. W. Bush's Inaugural Address (It's alright, you can Goolge it!) and see if the proverbial light bulb flashes on!

Let me know. Charles Knight Charles@CharlesKnightSEO.com

Impressive list! Hoping you will take a look at our new metasearch engine http://www.crawl.com that entered into beta testing yesterday, 3/5/07 . There is a link describing the methodology we used as well as many statistics to back it up to be added soon. Hope you like it.

Like you, I also feel we're not in the same front line. I think we're trying to solve different current internet search shortcomings and address different markets, being goshme more oriented (as I see it) to the hardcore web researcher and CrossEngine to mainstream web surfers.

I honestly wish you luck and encourage you and your team to keep up with what it seems to be a one of a kind research tool.

Moreover, we're willing to consider adding goshme to CrossEngine's search dashboard once you're out of your current private beta testing, only if you agree, of course. Let me know what you think: juan@crossengine.com

anybody else??

anybody else??

If you submit to these search engines, will they follow the links on the submitted page and include them, just like the Google bot??

I'm asking because I'm developing a mini hub of inter-linked
sites, and I do not want to have to submit all of them.

Thanks for your response.

Robert

Good work, here... Thank you for the list.

This search engine should be on the list!

As for Robert's question, #70, how does one submit to all of these alt search engines? First off, I wouldn't spend a nickel on any service that wants your money and promises to submit your site to 1,500+ Search Engines (yes, that's a real claim) Oh, BTW, that includes submission to www.myporn.com (don't worry, Richard, it's closed!)

As an SEO, I optimize websites for Google. As an enthusiast, I speak and write about the Top 100 Alternatives to Google, but not for their search traffic (see "Related Articles" in my About page). They have to replace Google *first* before they can inherit Google's market share of all that web searching traffic.

I'm the VP Marketing for a vertical engine currently in early Beta...it targets media buyers and planners, finding advertising opportunties across any medium.

Take a look www.balihoo.com

We're currently in Beta with 3 of the top 5 media buying companies in the US. We would love some early opinions from Charles or Richard if you're interested.

You can contact me at svaughanatbalihoodotcom

Shane Vaughan
Balihoo.com

Check out: Top 100 Alternative Search Engines

Click "-3" To dump a Atom Bomb "+3" I love this
It is funny

Obviously there are some very unique search engines in your top 100 list.

All The Best
Barsa

All The Best
Barsa

I would also like to suggest a site, MsFreckles.com. It provides an easy way to make professional searches for the ordinary internet user.
And it´s available in English, Swedish and Chinese(simplified).

http://www.msfreckles.com

Marcus
MsFreckles.com