Search engines are used for various purposes, including searching for information, images, videos, locations, and people. They are also widely utilized for online shopping, entertainment, education, enterprise search, legal discovery, and healthcare research.
Search engines have become essential tools for accessing and navigating the vast amount of information available on the internet. Google dominates the global market across both desktop and mobile platforms, holding over 90% of the market share as of 2023.
Here is a list of the most popular search engines in the world:
1. Google (Founded in September 1998)
Google is the most popular search engine, known for its efficiency and reliability. It became widely used by 2000 and currently handles over 90% of global searches. In 2020, Google reported over $180 billion in revenue, with $146.92 billion from advertising. Google’s culture of innovation has made it a leader in search and other tech services.
2. Bing (Founded in May 2009)
Microsoft Bing holds about 7% of the global search market. It uses advanced AI, natural language processing, and machine learning to provide accurate search results. Features include image search, video search, and a personalized news feed. Bing Ads offers targeted advertising across devices.
3. Yahoo! (Founded in January 1994)
Yahoo! was a pioneer in web search and became a popular web portal in the 1990s. Although overtaken by Google, Yahoo! remains relevant by sharing features with Microsoft Bing. In 2017, Verizon acquired Yahoo! and integrated it with AOL under the brand Oath.
4. Baidu (Founded in January 2000)
Baidu is the leading search engine in China, used by over 70% of Chinese internet users. It offers various services, including web, image, news, video, and music searches, as well as maps and an encyclopedia. Baidu’s pay-for-performance search platform targets users with relevant ads.
5. Yandex (Founded in September 1997)
Yandex is the most popular search engine in Russia. It features advanced search algorithms, spell-check, image search, and translation tools. Yandex offers a reliable search experience with numerous tools to customize results.
6. DuckDuckGo (Founded in February 2008)
DuckDuckGo prioritizes user privacy by not collecting personal information or tracking search history. It delivers fast, relevant results without distracting ads or sponsored content, using a proprietary algorithm to combine information from multiple sources.
7. Ecosia (Founded in December 2009)
Ecosia donates a portion of its advertising revenue to reforestation projects. Powered by Bing, it offers high-quality search results while supporting environmental causes. Ecosia provides transparent reports on its tree-planting efforts.
8. Sogou (Founded in August 2004)
Sogou is the second-largest search engine in China, offering voice and image search along with an extensive library of Chinese literature. It features a simple interface and supports multiple languages.
9. Internet Archive (Founded in May 1996)
The Internet Archive, founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle, is a nonprofit digital library preserving websites, software, music, videos, and books. Their Wayback Machine allows users to see archived versions of websites. Launched in collaboration with Alexa Internet, it contains billions of web pages dating back to the 1990s. This resource is valuable for researchers and anyone interested in the internet’s history.
10. Shenma (Founded in April 2014)
Owned by Alibaba Group, Shenma is a major search engine in China, using Contextual Semantic Technology for relevant search results. It offers personalized recommendations and local search, along with tools for search engine optimization.
11. Yep (Founded in June 2022)
Yep, developed by Ahrefs, is a privacy-focused search engine that does not track users’ personal information or search history. It plans to share 90% of its ad revenue with content creators, supporting the online information ecosystem. Yep uses its proprietary crawler, AhrefsBot, to index the web and deliver relevant search results.
12. Perplexity.ai (Founded in August 2022)
Perplexity.ai is an AI-powered search engine founded in 2022 that provides direct answers to user queries using large language models. It delivers precise, contextually accurate answers, making it particularly useful for in-depth research and obtaining detailed information quickly.
13. Qwant (2013)
14. Startpage (1998)
15. Swisscows (2014)
16. Mojeek (2004)
17. Searx (2014)
18. Metager (2005)
19. Givero (2017)
20. Peekier (2020)
21. Brave Search (2021)
22. Neeva (2020)
23. You.com (2021)
24. Kagi (2021)
25. Presearch (2017)
26. Gigablast (2000)
27. Dogpile (1996)
28. Webcrawler (1994)
29. Lycos (1994)
30. Ask.com (1996)
31. AOL Search (1983)
32. Excite (1995)
33. Infoseek (1994)
34. AltaVista (1995)
35. Blekko (2010)
36. Cuil (2008)
37. Wolfram Alpha (2009)
38. Boardreader (2004)
39. Yippy (2005)
40. Faroo (2006)
41. Hulbee (2012)
42. Sputnik (2014)
43. Naver (1999)
44. Daum (1995)
45. Nate (1999)
46. Mynet (1996)
47. Kvasir (1996)
48. Kooora (2006)
49. Fireball (1996)
50. Carrot2 (2002)
51. Eniro (2000)
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