Hi everybody. We are often asked what is the best search engine to use when I am looking for information? There are literally hundreds of search engines out there but almost everybody uses the top three or four brands. In this article, we will share our findings but you will have to be the ultimate judge.

The first search engine we tested was Google. Google is by far the most widely used of all thesearch engines. They currently have about 70% of the users but Bing is starting to take some of that away. We will talk about that a bit later. In our tests, we have found the Google searches good for finding all the big companies but many of us want to do business with the often times more personable small business owner instead. It is harder to find these entries on Google, especially since the Penguin update. So depending on what you are looking for, you can decide if Google is the best choice for your needs.

The second search engine we tested was Bing. Bing is one of the main competitors for Google and rightfully so. From the pleasant to look at home page to the great organic results, it is our number one pick. Bing actually stems from the older MSN search that was first introduced by Microsoft. It has great organic results that give you a mix of both the big guys and the smaller hometown businesses. If you happen to deal with their advertising department, even if it is a free local ad, they are courteous and helpful. With the new social media plug in they are introducing, Bing will be a force to be reasoned with. This is our top choice.

The next big gun on the block is Yahoo search. These folks are essentially the same as Bing with only slight differences in the search results. Although not quite as fancy as Bing, the searches are very organic and you get a nice mix of corporate and small business. Yahoo also rates very high with us in our searches. As an added bonus, both MSN and Yahoo make excellent home pages delivering compelling news articles and featured stories.

Sometimes you might want to search all the major search engines all at once. For this you can use a search engine such as Dogpile. This option will combine the top three searches we talked about and consolidate the results. If your job requires you to do searches from multiple sources, this option might be for you. In our tests, the results were quite good and only differed slightly from Bing and Yahoo.

In short, if you want a rock solid search engine that combines great results with style, switch to Bing, our number one choice.

 

Author:   Joe Zelenak, Staff Writer