How-To Geek
Ask the Readers: Which Search Engine Do You Use?
While Google dominates the search engine market, there are certainly other alternatives out there such as Bing and Yahoo. Today we’re curious about which one you use, and would you ever consider another one?
![sshot-2010-04-13-[16-49-22]](http://cdn.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/sshot20100413164922.png "sshot-2010-04-13-[16-49-22]")
Believe it or not…not everyone uses Google (surprising indeed), there are several other alternatives out there that some of you may be using and we’re interested in hearing about it. One of the more unique and interesting ones we previously covered is ixquick, which doesn’t save your IP or any information and can be customized quite nicely if you’re the paranoid type.
We’re interested in hearing about which search engine you currently use. Would you ever switch to a different one? Have you ever tried to experiment and not use Google (or your favorite engine) for a week?
Leave a comment below and join in the discussion!
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Comments (149)
Programmer by day, geek by night, The Geek, also known as Lowell Heddings, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 04/14/10
I use Google with the googlePrivacy greasemonkey script. http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/29078
Google by default. Sometimes I use Bing for image searches. Also, site-specific searches such as Wiki, youtube, imdb, etc.
Google only !
Thanks to Ask.com toolbar, I’ve blocked it via the HOSTS file. I use Google.
Not really… Have always been satisfied with Google! :)
I use Google 99.9% of the time. I occasionally use Bing.
Geeks, thanks for the write-up on “ ixquick”. I wasn’t aware of it. Google has become so invasive, I’m glad to hear about another alternative. I’ll give it a try.
Google.
I use Google Search for along time & it’s good for me….
It’s good also for non English use.
Always google.
I’m so tired of Microsoft trying to compete. They’ll never manage to get quite as good a search engine.
I have been using Bing for the past 6 months now. I occasionally use Google also, but I find bing more easy and useful, and more relevant results are obtained in Bing. I am glad I made the switch.
Bing
Most of the time Google but have been using Bing also. Whenever I use Yahoo, it always seem to find the same thing as Google.
using bing here about 99% of the time
Google. It’s clean, simple, and gets the job done.
google, bing and start page
Found I am turning to start page alot now.
Google nearly all the time. Bing is there when I want to stay away from Google but their search results are not as relevant or helpful. Yahoo is absoulutely out of the picture unless they get their search improved.
Answer is Google my friends.
I use Google. There isn’t any reason for other companies to try to compete. The majority of people use Google. It is often the default setting on most computers.
BING a ding……….ring a BING…………BING is the thing…………..sing a song of BING……….
Google. I tried to go for a week using Bing and I lasted only 4 hours :-)
Google. For some reason my router hates google and will occasionally refuse to go there, so I use Bing, but I have not really found it worth using generally.
Before Google, back in the dial-up days, it was Altavista.
lol. I”m the only one so far that is going to say Yahooooo. only because I use their email service so naturally, It stays on yahoooooooooooooooooo
Google all the way
It’s Google all the way. Love it.
I use multiple search engines…it all depends on what I am looking for at any given moment. ^__^
I use both BING and Google, it depends on my mood and what I am looking for.
When BING/Microsoft get’s around to offer the same “extras” to their european customers, as they do to their US based customers. I am propably going to switch to only BING as I don’t like Google as a company on many levels…
Google, why would you need anything else ;)
Bing 89.9765%
You mean there are other search engines beside Google?
Hmmm – Didn’t know that :)
I ALWAYS use Scroogle. It provides a Google search through a proxy and filters out the sponsored links and all of Google’s tracking mechanisms. Scroogle doesn’t save search terms or set a cookie and their IP logs are deleted within 48 hours.
StartPage is great for privacy too but their interface is a bit too cluttered for me.
Google
Bing is very good. But, AltaVista still is best “word” searching code…yes better than google.
Google is first and is my default. Bing gets used occasionally. After that, other search engines are used so seldom as to be too insignificant for me to even list.
I’m an old timer at this. Heck, AltaVista was once my default choice, and I was good enough at teasing out the wanted results that I won an AltaVista embroidered polo shirt from them back in 1998. Maybe one day some new paradigm will arise which will do to Google what Google did to AltaVista.
I’m a fan of Google but sometimes I like to spice it up with Dogpile.
I use Google. For those that have mentioned not liking Google, I ask, is Microsoft really any better?
“search” ?
what is that??
Oh i remember! it’s the word which was replaced by Google!! :P
Google ! But sometimes Wolfram Alpha can be handy, for instance it can solve maths equation and show you the steps to get to the answer .
Google as default on both home laptop and desktop because I use FF with Greasemonkey. Yahoo on work laptop because we’re forced to use IE and it’s the default. And I’m too lazy to bookmark Google.
Google is it!
There is only one true search engine worth using… and that’s Google (or iGoogle)! Nothing else compares!
Google, tried bing to see what it did and was uh oh no way jose!
Always Google, don’t even bother to use others
I use Bing by default, even in Chrome, but still use Google about 20% of the time.
Bing makes a very good secondary. Also Firefox is much faster.
80% Google 20% Bing
Google all the way
google for me
Google or Blackle( which is just Google with a black screen to reduce the energy it takes to load it)
I have been using Google for years now. I have tried others but I always come back to Google.
Google though I’ve been known to try Bing every now and then.
I hate the Bing..You see ,my chinese name is LI Bing. (LI is my surname).
I use google as my default search engine
and baidu.com secondly :)
Google and Google alone.
Duck Duck Go! http://dukgo.com/
…and on occasion Google :p
I use DuckDuckGo, Bing and Google. I try to stay away from Google as much as possible though. They’re a horrible and evil company that does not give a shit about privacy.
try KEYBOARDr much better then google
i use scroogle to query google. they delete all logs after 48 hours.
http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm
The Start Page is the only one I use. It gets the same results and my IP address is never sold for a song to spammers and web sites like most search engines do. Hence, I am a happy web surfer and remain familiar to only those I want to be familiar with.
Google !
Tried for others but some how my small Brain is matured for using keyword in Google search.
Bing
And I thought this little quip was rather funny:
“Bing isn’t a search engine, it’s a Decision Engine. Once you use it, you’ll Decide to stick with Google.”
10:32 AM Apr 5th via TweetDeck
I use Google always, but I have my homepage set on all my computers to Bing, for the beautiful pictures everyday.
I’ll try using ixquick too.
FRACK GOOGLE, I use Bing!
50/50 Bing, Google
Bing!
I was looking for an alternative (smaller footprint) to Adobe Reader and found Foxit. I installed it and unchecked to add the “Ask.com” tool bar. But afterwards, I had the Foxit/Ask.com tool bar in MS Explorer. I don’t play those games…so, I am removing both Foxit and Ask.Com tool bars from my computer. You have just become Malware in my eyes!!!
Google for general search, wikipedia for specific subject info with citations.
Only GOOGLE :)
Google (for 70% of searches), Wikipedia (for specific knowledge), Bing (mostly for searching images and a bit of info)
I use Google and sometimes Bing for Images
Google 100% :-)
I’m using miscellanous Searchengines in the Search-Bar of my Firefox:
- Ixquick.com
- Forestle.org
- metager2.de
- and… sometimes Google….
Google and it’s many wonderful tools
Yahoo, actually. I’m kinda sick of Google everywhere..
Google, its non intrusive and simple. Yahoo and the rest were always in your face and trying to force its products on you.
Bing
Google in the main.
But I do use the Firefox search-box drop-down and select other site-specific when appropriate, from: Amazon.co.uk; ebay.co.uk; Wikipedia and crunchbase.
I also have others on that list (eg Facebook), but to be honest, don’t think to use them and would either go to the relevant site and use their on-site search box.
Topeka
Google and Bing
I use either dogpile for most or scholar.google if I am looking for academic references.
Does blackle really save energy? I usually ‘google it’
Primary Bing, then google
Google here too but use Firefox for my BBC proxy server.
Generally i use Google as my first preference and while searching images i go for bing since in bing we can get all the images in just one page and no need for us to load the new page for new images as in google..and for my educational info i use wikipedia….
Almost exclusively Ixquick is my engine of choice. I also use Google scholar and at times Yahoo or a few others. I have pretty much completely weened myself off of google’s main search engine.
Scroogle is primary.
Yahoo when I need to send someone else a link.
I always use Google.
I use Google and, on rare occasions, Wolfram Alpha, Clusty, and the University of Washington’s Textrunner….
Henri
GOOGLE.GOOGLE.GOOGLE.GOOGLE.COM
I have used Google for a very long time. Default is Google, Google is my home page. I have tried other search engines, just to see if things are equal, and to my experience, yahoo, and Bing, and others just seem to be… not sure how to describe it, less than? I mean you search yahoo and the first results are exclusively result found ONLY on the Yahoo domain, same thing with MSN and Bing. I like Google, because to me it seems to offer results which are more open to all the information available on the internet.
About 3 months ago switch from Google to Bing – “Binging” is better.
StartPage by ixquick…….clean, efficient, fast, and private……many thanks for your review of it….I switched to StartPage the day the review appeared and have NEVER gone back to G****e…….
I use iGoogle. Only iGoogle. I’m not the least bit interested in any other.
I tried Google Chrome. Once. It sucks. It doesn’t have a “Favorites List”, so it is totally worthless. I have hundreds of sites on my “Favorites List.” It grows and shrinks daily.
Chrome is also slow.
I couldn’t remove it fast enough. And Chrome was the best of the other alternatives to iGoogle.
I sincerely appreciated the program to delete this POS from my system.
Why iGoogle is totally ignored here at “How to Geek” is beyond me. Unless money is involved, of course.
I have used google for the last 15 years and cannot believe that i would change to any other one as they are just not as good
By default I use Ecosia.org. This is because it apparently is more environmentally friendly. It enables me to use Google and Google Images if I wish; the search is not quite the same as Google and occasionally I follow up on Google. If I need real privacy (not very often) I use Startpage.com.
Bing is the one I use.
i use google… i find it give me all the results instead of filtered results that i think i get from other search engines
I use StartPage and iGoogle
Google primarily, Bing for images, Wolfram Alpha when I need to “know” something. Actually, I generally use my Goofram Firefox addon so I get Google and Wolfram together.
been surfing b4 google was born and have yet to find any use for it ….
used a great many but bing/msn has never failed me …. also use webring.com
Only Google. News, Search, Books, whatever.
Prefer iGoogle, with all the tailoring, nice-to-haves — but the sign-in turns me off; so default Google.
I use google for web searches and Bing images for image searches.
I love Bing. I don’t have to open the web site, Bing gives me a couple of paragraphs to view to see if I want to open it.
Also in the Bing Address bar I have an option to use Wikipedia, Yahoo, Goggle, Youtube, etc.
there is an option to add these.
Now if I want to search in each of these, The address bar stays the same but I can change Search Engines.
Metacrawler–it searches several other engines.
Google most of the time. I do like bing sometimes because of their previews without loading the whole page. It’s good when I’m not exactly sure what specific site I want. Their results are comparable. Google is just faster.
I’m still pretty much just using Google and have been since the fall of 1998. I still remember hearing about “a cool new search engine by some guys in another University” in class and checking it out later that day.
I use HTTPS Startpage now and if I remember correctly it was Ixquick before.
Google for search but not for email,docs etc.(I use Zoho).I don’t like too much stuff under one umbrella
I’m like Asian Angel and some of the others. I vary search engines according to what I’m looking for. Thanks to HTG I have added Startpage today due to some recent privacy issues that have come up. I admit that Google has been my main tool for most of the searches I do, but at times I use it to generate a starting place to refine results with other engines.
Strictly Google. I hate the Microsoft attitude of “All your computing is mine!”
Bing = Live renamed = stupid.
Ya WHO?
Google, 100% Google, Have tried others and always came back to Google. Did I mention that I use Google?
Well I use Bing or Yahoo can’t stan Google
I DO NOT – I WILL NOT – use Giggle for anything. I am satisfied that Google makes more money by selling their followers’ browsing history than by selling advertisements. I don’t want my personal information and browsing history handled in such a way. I normally use Yahoo search by default.
I use Google and will continue to do until something comes along that is able to meet my needs as well.
I use Bing more than Google. 80% – 20%
I use Bing for normal day to day stuff. And for technical stuff I switch to google.
Google, I love them!
Mostly Google, sometimes Bing, though I have occasionally found Clusty useful.
google
Google only………….
Clusty has been my alternative search engine for several years, It also respects your privacy as it does not record searches. Very useful in helping to narrow down a broad search topic.
Google: 99.5%
Yahoo: 0.4%
Bing: 0.06
Other: 0.04%
Or something like that ;)
Ask and it is Given that through recognizing and acting on our emotions, we can learn to operate on a higher frequency. Once we have become proficient in achieving this on a day-to-day basis, we can then directly influence how our lives.
Google… has always done the job, so never considered tryng another.
I have tried other search engines but I always go back to Google.
Bingo! bing! sometimes google too, for a change.
Google all the way! :)
http://www.dogpile.com/ It uses google yahoo and bing all at the same time
I mostly use Google, and sometimes I’ll use Google, but on occasion I will go straight to Wikipedia or Wiktionary.
99.9 % I use google.. It has most of what I’m looking for.
Google..!!!
(Thank you Dennis Hwang !!!)
Bing
but I will try startpage in the future
For added security try browzar http://www.browzar.com/index.html
I just started using startpage (ixquick)
AskJeeves and Lycos
I use Context Search to pick the right search tool (out of 18 search engines) based on what I’m wanting to search.
For example, if I’m reading a news article and it mentions something I want to learn more about, I highlight the term in question, right click, scroll down to “search for ‘whatever you highlight’”, and select Wikipedia.
If I’m reading an article on HowToGeek about the latest and greatest new Firefox add-on and I’m interested in an add-on that a commenter says is better or comparable, I can highlight the name of the add-on, right click, select Mozilla Add-ons…..
If I’m interested in finding a price on something in a review, I highlight the product name, right click and use Amazon.
One of my most used searches besides Google and Wikipedia is Acronym Finder. It rocks when reading techy blogs that mention clusters of letters I’m not familiar with.
Bing Images with safe search off is great for celebrity nipple slips, and other unsavory internet image searches :D
haha…and I use Urban Dictionary when I get confused by all the crunk comments on YouTube!!
Google with the slight occasion Ask and Yahoo!
G o o o o o o o o o o g l e
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Where is Altavista…
I use mostly Google and some times Bing (mainly with MS technical issues).
Bing. very happy with it.
Scroogle. Seems sad that I’ve seen something like 4 Scroogle users above me. I don’t like that it doesn’t work with WOT or SiteAdvisor though. I use Google Images for pictures, but I’m thinking of migrating to Bing usage for that.
I recently had to do a comparison of search engines for a class I was in. Hilariously, Yahoo! could not infer what I wanted at all and subsequently ruined the results given by Dogpile (which pools Yahoo!’s unusual results in with the rest).
I started using Bing about a year ago and I prefer it over Google. Also switched from only using Internet Explorer as my browser to using Firefox. Old dogs can learn new tricks. :)
Scroogle.
As the name implies, SCRew gOOGLE.
The designers of Scroogle created it with one thing in mind. Giving you everything Google had except Google’s nose up your butt, following you around and recording where you go.
i pretty much exclusively use dogpile
Changed from Google to Bing about 3 months ago.
But still prefer Google maps.
Only Google.
Google, generally.
“B.I.N.G. -> Bing Is Not Google” :3
Argh, put my name in wrong.
I’m impressed with scroogle. Discovered blackle. now have just noted 15 (fifteen!) names I have yet to check (first with whois) and then by trying out. Some are .com. others .org. Suggestions on which to use when there are both e.g. ixquick?
IXQUICK, it doesn’t record IP address. Google who owns Youtube is censored by the government. But most peope are dumb little sheep, afraid of change and just go with whatever….try something higher, different, more secure and intelligent. Bet you didn’t know that you can create your OWN search engine, did ya?
i Google only I like all my personal gadgets Sports scores, News, weather,and yes Hangman.
I like this place to search.
http://www.frynge.com/google.htm
It’s the best search engine I have found. It allows me to ask questions, as well as gives me three flavors of searching. So I can quickly choose what ever search engine I want from one page. What does everyone else use? I am willing to try new ones and am looking around for the best one I can find.