Except for spending time on social media platforms, most users browse the internet when they need to search for information, services, products, etc.
They use different search engines to complete their searches.
What Is a Search Engine?
Search engines are the tools that allow users to perform a search using search queries and provide them with the most relevant and useful content on the internet.
And if we ask, what is the best search engine?
Even a kid of this generation will answer that Google is the best search engine.
Its popularity, usage, accessibility, and accuracy helped to earn that badge.
However, many other website search engines do exist and provide millions of search results to their users.
Many of them are preferred to Google search engine by many users due to the enhanced privacy provided by those search engines.
This article shall discuss the top search engine list in 2023.
We will categorize them in the following four types,
- Mainstream
- Privacy
- International
- Other
Let’s dive in to explore the best search engines in the world.
Mainstream Search Engines
Following are the mainstream search engines used by most users to satisfy their search queries,
As mentioned earlier, Google is the most popular search engine worldwide and is considered the best by most users.
As a result, it acquired 91.58% of the total market share of internet search engines as of September 2023.
The primary reason behind its popularity is the complex algorithm it uses to provide users with the most relevant and accurate content in no time.
Their search engine results pages offer excellent SERP features like featured snippets, Google knowledge panels, and people also ask sections to ensure the best user experience.
It also offers other useful services like Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube, that has expanded its popularity more.
However, Google is often criticized for the amount of user data they collect while using their search engine. That means you must sacrifice your privacy to use the best search engine.
Bing
Bing holds the number two position in the list of search engines used by most users.
Microsoft introduced it in 2009 and holds 3.01% of the total market share of web search engines as of September 2023.
Users prefer Bing over other search engines mainly because of the accuracy it provides while performing a multimedia search like image and video search.
Yahoo
Though Yahoo is the oldest in the search engine list, it acquired only 1.24% of the total market share of web search engines as of September 2023.
Yahoo not only serves as a search engine but also offers valuable content on trending events, weather forecasts, and sports news as a web portal.
However, you may find similarities between Bing and Yahoo search results as Microsoft Bing powers the latter.
Privacy Search Engines
This section will cover the top search engines list that users prefer for the privacy they offer.
Users are becoming more aware of online privacy, and many are looking for solid alternatives to mainstream search engines.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo prioritizes user privacy, and they boast the same boldly.
It does not collect user information. Instead, it offers privacy features like Private Search, Tracker Blocking, and Site Encryption. However, they acquired only 0.58% of the total market share of internet search engines as of September 2023.
Even the ads shown on DuckDuckGo are non-personalized.
Startpage
This search engine ensures user security and privacy in the following three ways,
- They do not collect any user data.
- They do not store any previous search history.
- They delete the IP addresses of users from their servers.
The best part of Startpage, which users prefer, is that the search engine sources all the search results from Google and provides privacy.
Brave Search
Brave search engine ensures user privacy by providing a private search.
You can avail of this private search using Brave web browser or any other browser as well.
Brave Search is one of the web search sites that has its own indexing and algorithm system.
However, if you wish to get search results from Google on this search engine, you need to enable the “Google Fallback” option for more accurate search results.
Swisscows
Swisscows search engine was created in 2014 and focuses on user privacy. Though it has its own index and crawl bots, it partially collects data from Bing.
Searchers prefer Swisscows as it ensures privacy by not tracking any user data and offers a family-friendly feature by not offering any pornographic or sexual content in its search results.
The search engine also offers email, VPN, and private messenger services. You can install Swisscows in your Chrome browser using the plugin.
International Search Engines
The mainstream search engines cover various regions and offer search results in several languages, but they do not always provide accurate local search results.
This section will discuss some of the best web searching sites in countries that do not speak English.
Yandex
Yandex, the largest and most popular search engine in Russia, holds 64.1% of the local market share and 1.81% of the global market share as of September 2023.
The search engine is available both in Russian and English versions.
There are similarities between Yandex and Google search algorithms, which were revealed by a code leak of Yandex in 2023.
Baidu
Baidu is China’s largest and most used search engine, acquiring 67.46% of the local search engine market and 1% of the global market share.
Baidu offers several other services like maps, cloud storage, encyclopedia, the latest news, etc., which is quite similar to Google.
Shenma
Shenma is another famous search engine in China that holds 3.05% of the local search engine market share, and it is designed only for mobile devices.
Shenma was launched in China as a competitor to Baidu, considering the increase in usage of mobile devices and Google’s mobile-first indexing.
Hence, if you own an online business in China and want to target your audience on the go, you must rank higher in the Shenma search engine.
First, you must ensure your site is mobile-friendly to rank in Shenma.
You can run a mobile friendliness test on your website using the RankWatch tool.
Other Search Engines
We will discuss other search engines that many users prefer worldwide.
Ecosia
Ecosia comes within the ten top search engines globally and holds 0.08% of the US’s local search engine market share.
This not-for-profit organization sources its data from Microsoft Bing and earns revenue by showing Bing ads in its search results. Ecosia donates a part of this revenue to tree plantation projects worldwide.
Though Ecosia sources search results from Bing, it also provides links as search results that redirect to web pages like Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, etc.
Dogpile
Dogpile is a rugby term that refers to the piling-up strategy of players on top of each other, and the search engine mascot is a dog named Arfie.
The meta-search engine functions precisely in line with its name.
It gathers information from the top search engines, compiles them, and provides the best search results to its users. You need to click the ‘Go Fetch’ button to perform a search.
AOL
AOL is not only a search engine but also a web portal that offers local news that is trending and accurate weather information. It also offers the latest content on business, health & fitness, entertainment, food, etc.
Yahoo owns AOL, which sources its data from Microsoft Bing. If you are a sponsor, you can run parallel ads across these three search networks.
Which of The Above Search Engines Have Their Own Index and Crawlers?
The top search engines list covered in this blog offers two categories of search engines.
The first category uses its own website index and crawl bots. They can provide search results independently. For example, Google, Yandex, Bing, and Baidu search engines.
The other category of search engines partially sources data from mainstream search engines like Google and Bing. For example, DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, and Swisscows search engines.
Many users prefer the first category of search engines due to the accuracy provided in their search results.
Your website ranks on the search results pages only when the search engine crawlers can find your content online. If your site has issues related to technical SEO, chances that your content will appear on search engine results pages are less.
Don’t worry! We have a solution for this.
RankWatch’s website auditor tool crawls your website exactly like search engine bots and identifies SEO issues. You can resolve them to ensure your website ranks higher in search engine results pages.
Conclusion
We frequently use search engines to seek information, products, or services. Google is the most popular and the best search engine for maximum users.
However, there are millions of searchers who prioritize privacy and prefer other search engines like DuckDuckGo, Startpage, Swisscows, Brave Search, etc., over mainstream search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
Some users do not speak English and look for accurate local search results in their mother tongue. They prefer search engines like Baidu, Yandex, Shenma, etc.
Which is your favorite search engine?
Let us know in the comments below!