This is the best list of Alternative Search Engines I have ever done. It has to be. With each monthly update, several things happen that serve to improve the list. One, I have spent a month - since the March update - scouring the World Wide Web for any brand new Search Engines (see Querycat) or ones that might have been missed (see Accoona). Two, several alternative search engines have been added directly from readers' comments to the last list (see younanimous; more on that later). And several readers suggested a new category: Charity Search Engines; so that category has been added and I placed a charitable search engine on this month's list (see SearchKindly). I am also preparing an article that looks at many of the Charity search engines that have recently sprung up. Finally, another source of new alts comes from those leaving their alpha or "stealth" phase and entering a Beta phase - or even fully launching; see the new Cydral (note: instructions are in French).
In total, there are 12 new search engines this month (and 12, sadly, went "down to the minors"). From the first List in January through to this one, there have been 160 Alternative Search Engines in total!
I also try to improve the format and usefulness of the List every month. Last month I incorporated your suggestion to add Categories to the List and Excel spreadsheet. This month I have added some more features. As you look over the 100 names, please note that there are fifty alts that have an asterisk (*) after their name; this indicates that the search engine has been on all four lists from January through April. I also added notes to remind you who was one of the ten (throughout the year) featured Search Engines of the Month (see GoshMe and KoolTorch).
But the biggest change that I have made is in response to those readers who have noted that 100 search engines is too many to check out! I guess in my heart I have always known this, because if you spend just 10 minutes looking at each one, it will take you 16 hours to complete! So this month I am inaugurating a brand new feature: in addition to the Search Engine of the Month, I have marked with an (HM) ten Honorable Mentions! Try to take the time to experiment with these this month. Every month I will designate another ten; and so when December rolls around, you will have the absolute best Top 100 Alternative Search Engines; 90 Honorable Mentions; 10 Search Engines of the Month; and of course the #1 Search Engine of the Year for 2007!
And now for the month of April, I am pleased to present the Search Engine of
the Month - younanimous! Or, as it has become, AfterVote!
One thing that I have noticed after looking at so many search engines is that
many fall into one of two camps. Either they present a fairly simple search box
with an "Advanced Search Preferences" link, which are essentially the
same routine filters (and very similar to Google's). Or the Search Engine is
chock full of features which are intimidating for the first time user and
require a steep learning curve that few are willing to climb. AfterVote stops
the searcher right on the homepage and asks him or her to select their comfort
level. If they just want to do a quick and easy search, they can select
"Beginner" and AfterVote will only show them the essential tools. But
if the searcher desires to learn how to be a more skilled user, she can choose
"Intermediate" and AfterVote automatically responds with some more -
but not all - of its features. Finally, you guessed it, if you are an expert
searcher (and you know who you are), you don't have to "dumb
down" when using AfterVote - just select "Advanced" and all of
their features will be at your disposal! And thanks to cookies, AfterVote will
even remember your "level" the next time you visit the site! But if
you're curious, go ahead and select "Advanced" and take a look at all
of the cool buttons. You can select "Search Level" at any time and
pick another option.
This is not the place to go into a detailed tour of AfterVote, for that just click on their blog and you can read all about it. I do want to point out that AfterVote is the work of three guys who also have regular jobs. It just goes to show that you don't have to have a million dollars in VC money to create a new search engine, just some great ideas and a whole lot of work!
How AfterVote works - click
here for larger screenshot
P. S. I will be in Italy when this is published, so I have asked Dan (of AfterVote) and Richard (Read/WriteWeb Editor) to keep an eye on your comments. I will have to play catch up when I get back, or you can send me an email at Charles@CharlesKnightSEO.com. Arrivederci!
Please follow this link to the Searchnomics Conference website and submit your search engine in their competition. Then you can ask your users to vote for your site. The winner will be announced - with much fanfare - at the Searchnomics conference in Santa Clara, California on June 27th.
| Search Engine name | URL | Category |
| Accoona | www.accoona.com | A.I. Search (HM) |
| AfterVote (SEM) | www.aftervote.com | Social Search |
| Agent 55 | www.agent55.com | MetaSearch |
| AllTha.at | www.allth.at | Continuous Search |
| AnswerBus | www.answerbus.com | Semantic Search |
| Blabline | www.blabline.com | Podcast Search |
| Blinkx* | www.blinkx.com | Video Search |
| Blogdigger | www.blogdigger.com | Blog Search |
| Bookmach.com* | www.bookmach.com | Bookmark Search |
| ChaCha* (#1 2006) | www.chacha.com | Guided Search |
| ClipBlast!* | www.clipblast.com | Video Search |
| Clusty* | www.clusty.com | Clustering Search |
| CogHog | www.infactsolutions.com |
Semantic Search |
| Collarity* | www.collarity.com | Social Search (HM) |
| Congoo* | www.congoo.com | Premium Content Search |
| CrossEngine (Mr. Sapo)* | www.crossengine.com | MetaSearch |
| Cydral | http://en.cydral.com | Image Search (French) |
| Decipho* | www.decipho.com | Filtered Search |
| Deepy | www.deepy.com | RIA Search |
| Ditto* | www.ditto.com | Visual Search |
| Dogpile | www.dogpile.com | MetaSearch |
| Exalead* | www.exalead.com/search | Visual Search |
| Factbites* | www.factbites.com | Filtered Search |
| FeedMiner | www.feedminer.com | RSS Feeds Search |
| Feedster | www.feedster.com | RSS Feeds Search |
| Filangy | www.filangy.com | Social Search |
| Find Forward | www.findforward.com | Meta Feature Search |
| FindSounds* | www.findsounds.com | Audio Search |
| Fisssh! | www.fisssh.com | Filtered Search (HM) |
| FyberSearch | www.fybersearch.com | Meta Feature Search |
| Gigablast* | www.gigablast.com | Blog Search |
| Girafa* | www.girafa.com | Visual Display |
| Gnosh | www.gnosh.org | Meta Search |
| GoLexa | www.golexa.com | Meta Feature Search |
| GoshMe* (SEM) | www.goshme.com | Meta Meta Search |
| GoYams* | www.goyams.com | Meta Search |
| Grokker* | www.grokker.com | Meta Search |
| Gruuve | www.gruuve.com | Recommendation Search |
| Hakia | www.hakia.com | Meaning Based Search |
| Hyper Search | http://hypersearch.webhop.org |
Filtered Search |
| iBoogie | www.iboogie.com | Clustering Search |
| IceRocket* | www.icerocket.com | Blog Search |
| Info.com | www.info.com | MetaSearch |
| Ixquick* | www.ixquick.com | Meta Search |
| KartOO* | www.kartoo.com | Clustering Search |
| KoolTorch (SEM) | www.kooltorch.com | Clustering Search |
| Lexxe* | www.lexxe.com | Natural Language Processing (NLP) |
| Lijit | www.lijit.com | Search People |
| Like* | www.like.com | Visual Search |
| LivePlasma* | www.liveplasma.com | Recommendation Search (HM) |
| Local.com* | www.local.com | Local Search |
| Mamma | www.mamma.com | MetaSearch |
| Mnemomap | www.mnemo.org | Clustering Search |
| Mojeek* | www.mojeek.com | Custom Search Engines (CSE) |
| Mooter* | www.mooter.com | Clustering Search |
| Mp3Realm | http://mp3realm.org | MP3 Search |
| Mrquery | www.mrquery.com | Clustering Search |
| Ms. Dewey* | www.msdewey.com | Unique Interface (HM) |
| Nutshell | www.gonutshell.com | MetaSearch |
| Omgili | www.omgili.com | Social Search |
| Pagebull* | www.pagebull.com | Visual Display |
| PeekYou | www.peekyou.com | People Search |
| Pipl | http://pipl.com | People Search |
| PlanetSearch* | www.planetsearch.com | MetaSearch |
| PodZinger | www.podzinger.com | Podcast Search |
| PolyMeta | www.polymeta.com | MetaSearch |
| Prase | www.prase.us | MetaSearch |
| PureVideo | www.purevideo.com | Video Search (HM) |
| Qksearch | www.qksearch.com | Clustering Search |
| Querycat | http://querycat.com | F.A.Q. Search (HM) |
| Quintura* | www.quintura.com | Clustering Search |
| RedZee | www.redzee.com | Visual Display |
| Retrievr | http://labs.systemone.at |
Visual Search |
| Searchbots | www.searchbots.net | Continuous Search |
| SearchKindly | www.searchkindly.org | Charity Search |
| Searchles* (DumbFind) | www.searchles.com | Social Search |
| SearchTheWeb2* | www.searchtheweb2.com | Long Tail Search |
| SeeIt | www.seeit.com | Image Search |
| Sidekiq* | www.sidekiq.com | MetaSearch |
| Slideshow* | http://slideshow.zmpgroup.com/ | Visual Display |
| Slifter* | www.slifter.com | Mobile Shopping Search (HM) |
| Sphere | www.sphere.com | Blog Search |
| Sproose | www.sproose.com | Social Search |
| Srchr* | www.srchr.com | MetaSearch |
| SurfWax* | www.surfwax.com | Meaning Based Search |
| Swamii | www.swamii.com | Continuous Search (HM) |
| TheFind.com* | www.thefind.com | Shopping Search |
| Trexy* | www.trexy.com | Search Trails |
| Turboscout* | www.turboscout.com | MetaSearch |
| Twerq | www.twerq.com | Tabbed Results |
| Url.com* | www.url.com | Social Search |
| WasaLive! | http://en.wasalive.com | RSS Search |
| Web 2.0* | www.web20searchengine.com | Web 2.0 Search |
| Webbrain* | www.webbrain.com | Clustering Search |
| Whonu?* | www.whonu.com | MetaSearch |
| Wikio* | www.wikio.com | Web 2.0 Search |
| WiseNut* | www.wisenut.com | Clustering Search |
| Yoono* | www.yoono.com | Social Search |
| ZabaSearch* | www.zabasearch.com | People Search |
| Zuula* | www.zuula.com | Tabbed Search (HM) |
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Comments
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Nice list. You know what I find funny. Old school metasearch sites still appeal to me, even with the plethora of search engines available today. I've used dogpile.com for years, because it shows results for Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask side by side. I find this really useful as a research tool. Then again, I like old-school hip hop too.
That said, I use podzinger as well, as the BBN technology is extremely useful when you want to find video and audio content using text search strings.
All the best
Tom
Posted by: Tom O'Leary | May 1, 2007 12:37 PMCharles, I will suggest a new category of The Best Vertical Search Engine or The Best Search Engine for Specific User Group and nominate Quintura Kids (http://kids.quintura.com) for this category.
Posted by: Yakov | May 1, 2007 12:46 PMGreat! Perfects Tips!
Posted by: Nico | May 1, 2007 12:51 PMNice compilation of Search Engines. AfterVote looks good except interface is little cluttered.
Posted by: Saket Kumar | May 1, 2007 1:25 PMThats what the first screen is for. If you desire a less cluttered enviorment, choose beginner or intermediate :)
Posted by: Dan | May 1, 2007 1:29 PMFor some informational videos on explaining aftervote, Check out these youtube videos. Please note the sound isnt that great, so you will need to turn up your sound/speakers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn0_JmvTFbs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gapUiHZ824I
Posted by: Dan | May 1, 2007 1:35 PMAmazing list, and yes AfterVote definitely is doing something right.
I've installed their firefox plugin too.
Posted by: Ali | May 1, 2007 2:08 PMGreat job on the list. I still don't really see the point to attempting to enter the search market, unless you really have a solid, groundbreaking idea. The "new" engines I've tried, only seem to make things more confusing and annoying. Well, good luck to them.
(submitted in queue to tweako - http://www.tweako.com )
Posted by: Mike | May 1, 2007 4:58 PMI saw after vote awile ago after reading them talk about people who want to fund them and their desire not to take the money.
I was very impressed with their search engine and the fact they have done this one their own.
Posted by: Jason - CleverTools.com | May 2, 2007 12:09 AMNice list of search engines.
Most of the search engines in this list uses technology from some of the larger players and it might be a good idea to add technology provider (search service) to each player. Even the nicest interface will not change the fact that the quality and the characteristics of the search service provider is essential for every search engine.
The three largest players in image search when it comes to database size and relevance is Picsearch and Google followed by Yahoo.
Keep up the good job.
Best Regards
Posted by: Carl Sarnstrand | May 2, 2007 12:27 AMCarl Sarnstrand
carl.sarnstrand@picsearch.com
Picsearch
this is another feather in my cap
thankx
Posted by: sameer | May 2, 2007 2:16 AMthis is will certainly help me as well as other too
thankx
Posted by: sameer | May 2, 2007 2:17 AMi reckon http://vivisimo.com should be on the list
Posted by: Dave | May 2, 2007 4:24 AMNice list! Don’t forget to add Sidestep.com to that list of great sites. They’re one of the best sites for travel I’ve run across. I’ll have to bookmark this page and keep this list handy!
Posted by: Craig Lawson | May 2, 2007 9:15 AMWith 175 million people profiles, Wink.com is the easiest way I've found to look up people's "web address." who needs a street address, but a PI or creditor? They partnered up with Reunion.com this week too - http://mashable.com/2007/04/30/reunion-wink/
Posted by: mlstotts | May 2, 2007 9:19 AMCharles,
Great list. I like the fact you update it on regular basis.
What about SearchBigDaddy.com? It's ranked in the Alexa 5000. Please let me know as there are 29,000 affiliates for this search engine and they now have city portals for local businesses as well.
I'd be interested in any opinion you care to share about SearchBigDaddy.com
Posted by: Bob | May 2, 2007 9:37 AMHave you considered adding zotspot to your list? It may be a nice addition.
Posted by: Mark | May 2, 2007 11:21 AMWarning on Ms. Dewey!
Would not load. Crashed my system
Posted by: Oleo | May 2, 2007 11:40 AMI think http://www.fasterplease.com should be on this list next month. :)
Posted by: Steffen | May 2, 2007 1:31 PMI'm still surprised, especially with entries on the list like MrQuery (which does nothing original, as far as I can tell), that you haven't included Kosmix.com.
Posted by: Mark Johnson | May 2, 2007 1:32 PMThere are two other interesting search engines out there that use derive information from the internet to provide new information to users. Farecast that uses past airline ticket prices to help people solve the "when to buy" tickets problem. Also, Summize.com written up here, that uses the wisdom of crowds of sentiment to help users with the "what to buy" problem.
Posted by: Aegir | May 2, 2007 4:46 PMHi,
Strategicboard, the spam free blog search can be also a nice addition to your list.
Dudu
Posted by: Dudu Mimran | May 3, 2007 3:33 AMDon't forget ScoopVid
Posted by: Xeit | May 3, 2007 5:49 PMhttp://scoopvid.com/
This is a promising up and coming search engine. the research they performed was initially based on gaming, but there is a large Health Informatics dept at their university so they are expanding into health searches as well...
http://www.genieknows.com/
Posted by: Tristan | May 3, 2007 5:53 PMwhat about opinmind.com?
Posted by: Dr. D | May 3, 2007 6:42 PMWhile they are just "scrapers", I wonder why scroogle.org isn't on your list?
Posted by: Shadow | May 3, 2007 7:08 PMnot much point having so many though
Posted by: Tu | May 3, 2007 7:23 PMNice list. I have been working on a search engine for quiet sometime. www.yufind.com displays tags below the search results. Still got tons of work to go though.
Posted by: gsurface | May 3, 2007 8:06 PMwhat about the job search engines like www.recruit.net and www.indeed.com ?
Posted by: Victor Razzi | May 3, 2007 8:16 PMhttp://luxuriousgear.com/
Posted by: steven | May 3, 2007 9:25 PMYou have Accoona on that list.
I somehow had an Accona toolbar whacked into my browser once, and it took about half an hour to get rid of the bloody thing permanently- and I'm not a general noob.
That name has a very dirty name to me.
Posted by: Deviant | May 3, 2007 10:18 PMWow,afterrepeated search attempts on "Aftervote" and not one single result returned I was certain "Aftervote" was crap.Thanks for the suggestion!
Posted by: Brian | May 4, 2007 12:28 AMMy favorite is Google.
Posted by: Shaun Apple | May 4, 2007 12:38 AMThanks thats a great list.
Posted by: Jim Davis | May 4, 2007 1:06 AMIn regards to #32-
Posted by: Dan | May 4, 2007 1:57 AMYou are using safari, which we do not support at the moment due to the ridiculous javascript interpretations they have. We do however work in Firefox (all versions), IE (all versions), Opera (all versions) and AOL / Netscape.
Remember, Google is a big hulk.
I found this search engine its quite good:
http://www.findalternative.com/
it searches bittorrent and file sharing sites as well.
Posted by: Dave Goldmaker | May 4, 2007 2:24 AMThe best torrent files search engine:
Posted by: Toni | May 4, 2007 4:18 AMhttp://www.ktorrents.com
Please check out also www.izito.com (metasearch)and
Posted by: Murdok | May 4, 2007 6:45 AMwww.seekful.com (comparable with Turboscout).
Those are my current favorites.
The thing I do not like about Google and Yahoo is, that they do not recognize documents with similar content. It happens often on the Web that a post or document is spread out over more then 50 websites. Now that is great for the author but not for the searcher because it blows up your search result unnecessarily. With InfoCodex this will not happen because the linguistical database recognizes similar documents and puts them into groups. This does not blow up your search result unnecessarily.
http://www.ywesee.com/pmwiki.php/Ywesee/InfoCodexProcedure
Three things a better search engine should do:
1. Automatically classify a document according to its content.
2. Automatically generate an abstract of a document.
3. Generate a Heat-Map of the Contents of a Search Result.
http://www.ywesee.com/uploads/Main/InfoCodex_22.2.2007.pdf
Posted by: Zeno Davatz | May 4, 2007 7:48 AMLike it vey much. search engine sites usually lead the internet community in terms of lastest surfing trends, code development, features and so on. I learnt alot by going through the sites on your list. Thanks...
Posted by: sudo | May 4, 2007 8:17 AMNice list, not sure whether worthwhile to further research their algorithms, now the blogging is expanding so rapidly, as big bang. Among them, many are scams, researching it might hlep how to make it more efficient and returning result more accurately.
Posted by: Bing | May 4, 2007 8:37 AMThis is great. I followed the earlier post and checked out search engines I had never heard of before. Not only that but I submitted my site there. Can't help but try for more se links. This is a great list and I am sure it will double in size in time.
Posted by: Psychic | May 5, 2007 7:31 AMTerryG Psychic advice
That is an excellent list. I submitted to a few of the listed search engines. I was surprised to see so many.
Posted by: Roy | May 5, 2007 10:39 PMInformative and interesting. I'll try some of them out. Made me think of a few search engines we won't see anytime soon...
Posted by: Lee | May 6, 2007 2:15 PMFAROO is a universal web search engine based on peer-to-peer technology. The users are connecting their computers, building a worldwide, distributed p2p web search engine. No centralized index and crawler are required anymore. Every web page visited is automatically included in the distributed index of the search engine.
Posted by: Flow | May 6, 2007 3:02 PMThe ranking of search results is based on a distributed usage statistics of the web pages visited by FAROO users.
www.Looksmart.com, the 101. Good at searching articles
Posted by: digitalguru | May 10, 2007 4:25 AMAdding "Charity Search" to your list is a great idea. Why not do some good while searching for the stuff you need anyway. Please take a look at http://searchgive.com. This is our offering to the world of Charity Search.
Posted by: Stas | May 10, 2007 1:51 PMUn nuovo motore di ricerca creato utilizzando Google Co-op: Crea al posto vostro le stringhe di "comandi" da passare a Google per raffinare la vostra ricerca: vi risparmierete di dover digitare "intitle:index.of + (doc|pdf) + "TITOLO" -(html|php|asp) + apache" per cercare documenti Word/PDF. Fateci un giro, non ve ne pentirete. Perfeziona i risultati per : .wav .wma .mid .avi .mp3 .mpg .mpeg .mov .doc .xls .pdf .txt .cvs .zip .rar .torrent.
Posted by: gabr1 | May 12, 2007 12:47 PMEnter a search keyword and hit the search button, select a filetype refinement.
Popular queries: Live, Beach, Harbour, Restaurant,
Clik How to find live webcams: Enter a search keyword then select a camera manufacturer.
There's also a new search engine I have found on the internet. It is called Medwhat.com a health search engine.
Posted by: Dev | May 14, 2007 8:08 AMI think is pretty neat.
I just tried AfterVote from your list.
Posted by: ThaiWeb | May 14, 2007 11:10 AMIt's a really nice search tool!
I think it can be useful for SEO !
Many thanks !
Dev, thanks for the tip on Medwhat.com.
ThaiWeb, thanks for the comment about AfterVote!
Any other comments, folks?
Posted by: Charles Knight | May 14, 2007 4:03 PMHello
Can you please add this engine to your list?
Thanks,
www.netsearchaustralia.com
Posted by: Admin | May 22, 2007 2:42 PMA Media Production company Specializing in All types of 2d & 3D Animations,e-learning,
Posted by: Creative Mediapulse Technologies pvt.ltd | May 25, 2007 9:23 PM3d simulation,3d walkthrough,3d modeling animation,Multimedia presentations, marketing presentation, webpromoting,Videopresentation,Animations-website-design,webstreaming, development,hosting, Flash presentations, interactive presentations,cbts,wbts,and more...
hello friends, i want to share a good info with u that a new Powerful meta search engine has been launched and best results then others meta search engines. so it should be add in this list
Humgo Search
www.Humgo.com visit it. i hope u will like it
Posted by: Fawad | May 26, 2007 10:48 AMHelpful list, and good alternatives for when I am researching and can't come up with substantive results.
On the search front, the trend also seems to be toward more specialized searches. In the space I am in, for example, Zillow, Trulia, Cyberhomes are working on new ways for homeowners to search for homes. In our space, mortgages, we're using technology developed for lenders to let mortgage shoppers search anonymously.
The trend is toward carving out these niches.
Posted by: Gerri | May 29, 2007 1:44 PMReally great SEO Article and very helpful. Feel free to check out my articles too.
Posted by: SEO | May 31, 2007 10:58 AM