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The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines

Posted by ryuzaki0 on

ReadWriteWeb writes "Search Engine Optimizer (SEO) Charles S. Knight has compiled a list of the top 100 alternative search engines. The list includes Artificial Intelligence systems, Clustering engines, Recommendation Search engines, Metasearch, and many more hidden gems of search. People use four main search engines for 99.99% of their searches: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask.com (in that order). But Knight has discovered, via his work as an SEO, that in the other .01% lies a vast multitude of the most innovative and creative search engines around."

29 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Intranet Vs Internet by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Informative

    As with most lists, I've got some nitpicking to do.

    All the large companies I've worked for don't care about world wide web search engines. Those engines used by the populace with the revenue coming from ads or 'paid search' or some indirect service business model. Now, a lot of companies are interested in Enterprise Search Engines and would pay a lot of money directly to a search engine company to come in and set up the technology to do intranet searches.

    The engine we currently use at my fortune 500 company sucks. I mean it is the worst. I would rather have a blindfold on with stumps for hands trying to type in an estimation of the internal IP address than use our search engine. That said, I have been told that we investigated using "Google Technology" although my superiors soon found that it wasn't at all better than what we already had. And so I've heard of a few others that have doubted Google's ability to dominate in a closed domain. They are clearly the winners in an open domain internet search but I haven't seen anyone take advantage of it as well internally ... yet.

    So while the external market may be broken down 99.99 to 0.01, the internal enterprise search side isn't that lopsided.

    Two engines that I've used and found to be novel ideas are BrightPlanet's Deep Query Manager and Collexis (NIH demo). DQM is able to extract data from databases that are available through search on the local page but are not indexed by Google. DQM has you create jobs since they take so long to run. Collexis can process raw text and fingerprint it, then compare that fingerprint to documents that have been fingerprinted quickly. Two ideas that Google, MSN & Yahoo! don't really cover. I find it odd that a site like Yoople (what appears to be a slow German Google) made it on this list but not DQM.

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Intranet Vs Internet by JehCt · · Score: 4, Informative

      Could it be that your internal search sucks because your internal data is poorly organized, poorly written, and poorly tagged? Google isn't very good at finding stuff without the necessary clues. Search is only as good as the data stream. That's why SEOs always have lots of work - so many bad websites, so little time. If you know what you want, Google is great. If you don't know what you want (don't know the keywords), read Wikipedia to learn what to ask for.

  2. Unusual definition of "alternative" by Stone+Rhino · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I was expecting to see specialized search engines, rather than generalized ones that happen to use unusual algorithms. Things like Baidu Mp3 search or Astalavista; the ones that allow special-purpose searches that feeding them into google would just produce crap.

    --


    Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
    1. Re:Unusual definition of "alternative" by Odiumjunkie · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I agree, I was expecting better - in my opinion there are a host of features that people have been talking about for years that haven't appeared in any search engine I've used.

      Things like:

      * searching by md5 hash to find where a random file on your hard drive came from

      * allowing the specifying of precise image size or dimensions to find a specific image - e.g., google indexes an image, you see the thumbnail, want to find it, but the original site is down - why can't google show me other images that match the original size and dimensions of that cached image, to help me find a mirror?

      * A search engine that rec0gn!s3s 4|_|_ 5p3c!4L cH4rAters

      * filtering search results by IP range

      * incorporating WHOIS details in search results (e.g foo +bar -foobar inurl:baz author:"J. Random Hacker")

      and so on, ideas that I hear mentioned occasionally but that never seem to go anywhere. Most of them would be fairly trivial to implement - perhaps file hashing would be too CPU intensive, but it could be limited to smaller files, or less acpu intensive algorithm could be used.

      Anyways, most of these I'd only use if they were added to Google - when it comes right down to it, database size is king with search engines - I'm happy to leave the meta/interactive/social/tagging side of things to the social bookmarking sites.

  3. Don't want "Alternative and Creative" by gambit3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    .. I want "accurate"

    --
    Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
  4. my favorite alternative search engine: by circletimessquare · · Score: 2, Funny

    zombo.com

    when i go there, i simply forget what i was looking for. problem solved. because you can do anything at zombo.com

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  5. Since when is a "driven social content website"... by Browzer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    a search engine?

    http://www.digg.com/about

  6. Source code search engine? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2, Informative

    Does slashdot or Sourceforge have a decent search engine to look for source code, sample code for particular APIs ?

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  7. Do the wiki tiki. by AlexanderDitto · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ha, that's OK. I just use Google to find pages on Wikipedia. It's got all the information I'LL ever need from the internet.

    In all seriousness. There must be a reason why Google's floated to the top of the search engine love list, and I highly doubt it can be their (nonexistant) effective advertising campaign or their (also nonexistant) entertaining flashed-based website, because we all know people love those. No, I have to say that Google's got to have come up on top because they've been giving fairly accurate results. I know that if my search results were completely off, there would be almost nothing keeping me from switching to a new search; and, ironically, a search on Google for search engine brings up quite a few possibilities.

    I see no problem here... I'll just move right along.

    --
    No, Mr. Green. Communism is just a red herring.
    1. Re:Do the wiki tiki. by Not_Wiggins · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, I have to say that Google's got to have come up on top because they've been giving fairly accurate results.

      "Accurate" had nothing to do with it. In a time when having keywords was the way to get to the top of the popular search engines, Google implemented a social ranking system; it really wasn't about being accurate so much as it was about "if everyone thinks you're link worthy, then you're probably an authority on some subject."

      There's plenty of talk about community-supported information and social networks, but Google was the first serious attempt at utilizing that information way before such discussions were popular.

      --
      Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
    2. Re:Do the wiki tiki. by Thanatos69 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't know about anyone else, I just find google really easy to type in my browser. The sad thing is, I open up a browser intending to go somewhere else, I will start typing www.goo right away... just habit? I really don't know.

      Looking at some of the other search engines in the link, I can see some of them being quite hideous to type. For instance, www.boxxet.com. I know, doesn't look hard but I have a hard time with x sometimes.

      Disclaimer: Some people would just say to use favorites.... I can type quicker than I can find a site in my favorites and google has never really led me astray in what I have been looking for.

  8. Excite? Altavista? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just gotta ask: what happened to Excite and Altavista? Both of these guys still look up...

  9. Re:Since when is a "driven social content website" by saskboy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Something like Digg, or Stumble Upon, is how many web users surf. It's the latest in Channel Hopping, and I think it's here to stay.

    The latest craze on the web is a 2000 Bloggers meme, where the photos of the blogmasters link to their website, giving people a random way to surf the blogosphere based on the looks of the author.

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  10. Wanted: Old school search engine by justthinkit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I want a search engine like Google was before they bought into blogging and brought that bias into their search results. Search engines that bias results in favor of pages that are heavily linked to end up supporting the status quo over newer-but-better ideas/products/pages, the corporate bullies vs Hertz. This could be a great small business incubator. Does such an engine exist today?

    --
    I come here for the love
    1. Re:Wanted: Old school search engine by justthinkit · · Score: 2, Informative

      Thanks for the suggestion. For the curious, it is now called Clusty.

      --
      I come here for the love
  11. How many of them... by Guppy06 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    are typosquatters?

    Find everything there is to know about "salshdot!"

  12. Enterprise seach and this supposed top 100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Enterprise search is always difficult, companies like Fast Search and Transfer specialize in it. They have all sorts of document filtering pipelines and customized database connectors to hook all sorts of data into their search system. It also scales quite will across a cluster.

    On the specific topic of this supposed top 100 list, I notice it is mostly a list of what is 'neat' as most high ranking non-top 4 search engines are not listed. Neilsen and most other traffic rating groups would definitely not agree with this list. Not a big deal, though the title is definitely misleading.

  13. Alternative Search Biz Plan by faqmaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    "in the other .01% lies a vast multitude of the most innovative and creative search engines around" -- all looking to get bought by one of the top four.

    --
    Are you...Are you some kind of genius?
    No, ma'am, I'm just a regular Slashdot reader.
  14. Suspect source by hcdejong · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The article was written by an SEO. Who says he doesn't rank them by how easy they are for him to manipulate?

  15. Why at least one of those sucks... by PFI_Optix · · Score: 2, Funny

    Liveplasma links Transsiberian Orchestra with Iron Maiden. Yeah, I see so much in common there.

    --
    120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
  16. innovative, but... by mnemonic_ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "...lies a vast multitude of the most innovative and creative search engines..."
    They're innovative and creative, but nearly useless as well.

  17. Closed domains & this thing called "Access Rig by mosel-saar-ruwer · · Score: 4, Insightful


    The engine we currently use at my fortune 500 company sucks. I mean it is the worst. I would rather have a blindfold on with stumps for hands trying to type in an estimation of the internal IP address than use our search engine. That said, I have been told that we investigated using "Google Technology" although my superiors soon found that it wasn't at all better than what we already had. And so I've heard of a few others that have doubted Google's ability to dominate in a closed domain. They are clearly the winners in an open domain internet search but I haven't seen anyone take advantage of it as well internally ... yet.

    Closed domains have this thing called "Access Rights" - typically governed by either Novell Directory Services, or Microsoft Active Directory.

    By and large, most enterprises don't want the janitor to be able to get on a kiosk terminal and surf the local search engine until he arrives at the document entitled FISCAL_YEAR_BRIBES_PAID_TO_MEMBERS_OF_THE_LOCAL_ZO NING_BOARD.DOC - that's the kind of thing that only the most elite of the grand poo-bahs are allowed to access.

    So a "closed domain" document spider is gonna have to be granted Administrator/Supervisory rights to the authentication infrastructure [which is a HUGE security risk in and of itself], and then it's gonna have to keep track of the pertinent access control lists before deciding whether or not individual users have the right to view search results.

    And if, as is typical, you've got four or five different authentication infrastructures in an enterprise [Novell Directory Services, Microsoft Active Directory, Sun iPlanet Directory Services, Oracle Internet Directory Services, etc etc etc], and if they aren't all tied together in some kinduva coherent LDAP framework, then that's just a massively complex project to even think about attempting to undertake.

  18. Did somebody just do a google search by cylcyl · · Score: 5, Funny

    On the term "alternative search engine" and post the first 100 results as an article?

  19. The list is bad by Qbertino · · Score: 4, Informative

    Vivisimo not among the top 100? This is silly. Vivisimo is the first I turn to when Google fails to deliver. And they cover Googles shortcomings very well.
    In my book (and that of many others) Vivisimo is SE #2. And for good reasons too.

    www.vivisimo.com

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:The list is bad by kamil_chatrnuch · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://www.vivisimo.com/ is the company.

      however, their search engine can be found here: http://clusty.com/ , which also appears to be in the list.
      maybe you also want to re-bookmark it, as the page is much nicer :)

  20. Many of these use a top-4 backend by Pigeon451 · · Score: 5, Informative
    This list is junk.

    A9 uses MSN or Google, SimplyGoogle uses Google, Soople uses Google, etc, etc, etc. They just provide a new or innovate method of presenting the results, the result order is still the same.

    Also, Digg is listed? Del.icio.us? AOL???

    I'd rather have a top-10 list of REAL alternative search engines, not "portals" and such written by a SEO of a search engine optimization company.

  21. Re:Source of marketing data? by CSKnight · · Score: 2, Informative

    Try this link: http://www.skrenta.com/2006/12/googles_true_search _market_sha.html Google 70.6% Yahoo! 18.7% MSN 8.9% Ask.com 1.7% Do the math! :-) Total = 99.99%

  22. Wayback Search by zombie_striptease · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't see that any of these "alternative" search engines offer fixes to Google's current shortcomings (or at least the ones I run into). Personally, I can't wait til there's the Wayback Machine's archives are searchable by text rather than just domain. Hell, I'd even be appreciative if you could search for parts of domains. I can't overstate how often I'm driven crazy by remembering something from a site I saw long ago and not being able to refresh my memory because the site either went down or fell out of Google's listings.

  23. The Final Answer: The Top 100 Search Engines List by CSKnight · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hi - I am Charles Knight, the creator and keeper of this list of the Top 100 Alternative Search Engines. I have *already* updated the list based up good feedback, which I shall continue to do all year long. If you would like a copy of the very latest version, just send me an email at: Charles@CharlesKnightSEO.com. The list you receive will have the revised Top 100, Search Engines not yet reviewed, Search Engines not yet released in Stealth Mode, Mobile Search Engines and the list of Search Engines that did not make the Top 100 list. Thank you for all of your helpful suggestions!