Google is a very effective search engine and has become so popular that it is becoming synonymous with searching the web. However there are very good reasons why you should not rely on one search engine:
- Search engines calculate the relevance of web pages to your search and present the most relevant first. Each search engine performs this calculation differently, and so will give different results for the same query.
- No one search engine covers all of the web. Studies have also shown that there is not a great deal of overlap in the coverage of the major search engines.
- Different search engines offer different features to aid your searching, it is worth exploring these to see if you find them useful.
If you are aware of the alternatives to Google you will be better able to make the most of what the web has to offer.
- Search Engine Colossus is an international Directory of Search Engines
- Phil Bradley, an expert on searching, has compiled a list of search engines