When we talk about search engines or search engine optimization (SEO), we immediately think of Google. Google dominates the German search engine market with a market share of around 84% for desktop searches and around 97% for mobile searches. However, there are many alternative search engines that have just as much to offer. You can find out which Google alternatives are available in this blog post. Here we go!
Industry giant Google
Most users use the Google search engine to search the Internet. Globally, Google has a market share of almost 90% (as of January 2021: 86%). The remaining 10% is divided between competitors, which, in addition to Bing and Yahoo, includes smaller search engines. Google offers many advantages, but there are good reasons to ask about alternatives when you search the internet for answers. The results that are displayed on Google are usually already adapted to the searcher, e.g., the location where the user is currently located, as well as their search history or, depending on the Google search mode, on what their social contacts have posted or rated on the web. Alternatives offer you different, more objective results for the search queries and can often ensure better data protection. In the following blog post, we will introduce you to the best alternative search engines to Google.
Alternative search engine: Bing
Microsoft Bing is Google’s biggest competitor, but has significantly less market share. Microsoft integrates Bing primarily in Windows 10 and in its language assistant Cortana. Bing is easy to use and offers a visual experience with beautiful background photos that change daily. Bing is ideal for video searches as it displays the results as large thumbnails previews with sound. Just like Google, Bing has internal features like currency conversion, translation, and flight tracking, making it a truly versatile tool on the global market.
Although you’re probably familiar with Bing, you might not know that it has a rewards scheme. When you shop or search through Bing, you earn points that can be used to buy apps and movies, which is pretty handy.
Alternative search engine: DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a popular search engine for those who value their privacy and would like their queries not to be tracked and logged.
It has a very clean interface with minimal ads and infinite scrolling, so the user experience is nice and streamlined. There is absolutely no user tracking and you can even add DuckDuckGo’s extension to your browser to keep your activities private.
Alternative search engine: Yahoo!
Yahoo has been around longer than Google, and while some may consider it obsolete, it is still the third most popular search engine in the world. It is even the default search engine for Firefox.
One of the great things about Yahoo is that it is so much more than just a search engine. Yahoo’s web portal offers email, news, online shopping, games and a well-rounded user experience in one place.
Integrations with Flickr, Yahoo Answers and Yahoo Finance, offer better image results and a variety of information on various topics.
Alternative search engine: Baidu
Baidu is the leading search engine in China with over 70% share of the Chinese internet market. With over 731 million monthly Internet users in China, Baidu offers great potential for companies that want to offer their products and services in Asia. Anyone who operates or wants to operate digital marketing in China cannot avoid Baidu.
Baidu looks similar to Google in terms of design, but is heavily censored. Certain images and even pro-democracy websites are blocked in the search engine.
Alternative search engine: Ecosia
Heavy use of search engines has an impact on CO2 emissions. This is where Ecosia comes in: the CO2-neutral alternative search engine.
For each search (powered by Bing), the income goes into a tree planting concept. On average, it takes about 45 searches to plant a single tree. According to the company, this number is now being reached in 1.3 seconds. More than 125 million trees have been planted according to this concept. The money for the trees comes from the advertisements. Sounds good at first. However, how good a search engine is depends primarily on the results and the speed. Similar to Google, Ecosia searches are very fast. Since Ecosia pulls search results from Bing, the search results are similar to the industry leader.
Alternative search engine: Qwant
Qwant is a privacy-oriented search engine that does not record your searches or use your personal information for advertising purposes and it does not use ad trackers. On the search page, in addition to the actual search field, you will also find current news.
The user-friendly interface categorizes your search results into web, news and social. Additionally, there is a dedicated music section to help you search for lyrics and discover new music.
Conclusion
This is just a snapshot of alternative search engines and what they can offer. Whether you are looking for more privacy, better usability, or impartial results, there are plenty of options to choose from. Many would say that Google is the largest and arguably the best search engine thanks to its powerful algorithms and AI. Deciding to browse the web without using Google might seem like a strange thing. But being the best and biggest search engine comes at a price.
Google is known to personalize your browsing experience at the expense of sharing your personal information and allowing Google to track you across the web. For some, this personalization can get annoying at the very least.
Additionally, many of these alternatives have different features and approaches to privacy. You can give it a try and might even get better search results.
If you need support to make your website/shop more visible to search engines or if you are looking for inspiration for the next SEO / SEA step, please contact us. We are happy to help you!
