The Most Popular Search Engines in the World

If we talk about the digital scenario, it seems that if there is no search engine, the internet makes not much sense. Whenever a user opens a web browser, his first inevitable step is logging on to a search engine, where he types a search query. And why not? Search engines are important. They not only give them the desired results but results, much more they have known, at times. A search engine will even give you result if you ask it “what is a search engine”. 

Now if you are wondering how do these search engines work, the following three functions will help you understand. This is how search engines work in simple terms.

• Crawling: Search engines crawl for content on each page URL they discover on the web.
• Indexing: After doing the crawler work, they store and index the content, that they have found while crawling.
• Ranking: Then they rank the content in the SERPs based on their quality and relevance. 

Now, when people hear about search engines, the first thing that clicks their minds is Google. For some people, it is the only search engine that exists. However in reality there are many search engines other than Google. And we are going to explore each of them in the following section. So, read till the end.

The 7 Most Popular Search Engines in the World 

The following list of search engines ranks them on the basis of their popularity. Get to know everything about these popular search engines, their significant features, and much more in the below section.

1. Google

Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It stands first among the most popular search engines, holding over 86% of the search market share. Be it any device like mobile, desktop, or tablet, Google is used by the majority of worldwide users. The reason behind this popularity is the quality and relevancy of its search results. Thanks to the Google search algorithm work.

Pros

• Google has a user-friendly interface that also provides a customized user experience.
• The Googlebot maintains a complete record of the user’s search queries, surfing patterns, websites or pages he visits, etc. 
• It owns giant traffic hence providing better chances to attract both organic and paid search. 
• Besides being the most used search engine it has come up with different software solutions such as Google Drive, etc. 

Cons

• Other search engines also desire large traffic, by working just like the Google search engine work. As a result, Google’s organic search has become the most competitive and paid search, highly expensive.
• Googlebots keeps track of a user’s surfing patterns and shares that info with marketers, etc. hence giving up his privacy.

2. YouTube

YouTube was founded in the year 2005 by Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley, and Steve Chen. Counted second among the top search engines of the world, YouTube was purchased by Google just a year later to its inception. 

Every month YouTube receives over 2 Billion logged-in users. While each minute more than 500 video hours are uploaded, each day it serves more than 1 billion video hours. 

Pros

• Youtube owns a simple user interface.

• Just like Google, it owns a tremendous amount of traffic.

Cons

• When it comes to Google Ads, YouTube can cost much high
  

Read More: 25 BEST VIDEO MARKETING BLOGS TO FOLLOW

3. Amazon

Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. Amazon, as we all know is among the large multinational companies and the best search engines in the world. As per the recent stats, almost 50% of the searches for online shopping took place on Amazon.

Pros

• Amazon also has an easy-to-use interface that allows users to search and find things within seconds.
• It offers a large collection of products, hence huge traffic could be seen on the platform.
• Users do not have to look for products in SERPs, they can directly go to the website and search their queries.

Cons

• Amazon experiences furious competition when it comes to comparing, competing, and pricing products.

• Also, selling products can prove expensive sometimes.
• Sellers who do not have a unique product struggle in selling products in the beginning. This is because of the limited sales, reviews, and rankings.
• Product promotion with CPC can cost you heavily. However, sellers get desired results, in the end, so the investment is worth it.

4. Facebook

Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. And it's not hidden that Facebook is the most loved internet search engine among all age groups across the world. This is because it has exceeded 2 Billion global searches per day and 1.62 billion logged-in visitors per month. 

Pros

• Facebook is primarily a social media platform letting people stay connected, share their life events, pictures, videos, and a lot of other stuff. 
• Secondly, it has become a great place for a business, enabling businesses and advertisers to get access to a huge consumer market. 
• Businesses can reach their target audience using Facebook promotions or ads, revolving around factors like geolocation, interests, demographics, locations, titles, etc.
• If businesses have brand loyalty and create regular, relevant, and engaging content, then Facebook can become a great source of unpaid traffic for them. 
• Businesses wanting to launch new products on social media can also begin with Facebook.

Cons

• Facebook Ads can cost you heavily depending on the target audience and demographic. 
• Ads may tend to lose relevancy and traffic isn’t as targeted as expected at times.

5. Microsoft Bing

Launched in 2009, Microsoft Bing or Bing is a renowned web search engine owned by Microsoft. It took birth from Microsoft’s previous search engines- MSN Search, Windows Live Search, Live Search. 

Bing is counted among the world’s top search engines and is the best alternative to Google. It ranks 30th among the most visited websites in the world and has a search engine market share ranging between 2.83% and 12.31%.

Pros

• Bing is the default search engine of Microsoft Edge web browser and other Microsoft devices.
• It is largely valued in countries like US and UK.
• It enables easy searching of images, videos, and other content just like Google. 
• Its service namely Bing Places provides businesses with an amazing platform to create business profiles and enhance their search results.
• Bing’s algorithms are less refined than Google search algorithm, however are uncomplicated to understand and optimize for.

Cons

• The search engine market share is quite low despite being the default search engine of Microsoft devices.
• As compared to Google, Bing’s algorithms are not that refined. 
• Bing experiences much lower traffic than Google.

5. Baidu

Baidu, a Chinese search engine, was founded in 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu. With a global market share between 0.68% and 11.26%, Baidu is the most popular search engine in China. 

Pros

• Every month, Baidu serves not less than a billion search queries from China.
• Its organic algorithms are simple as compared to Google. 
• Even paid ads are easy to process if you are a resident of China.

Cons

• Baidu has extremely less influence outside China. In other words, it is giving great access to solely one market and that is China.
• The images, videos, and other content results are totally different from Google. Even Google Translate can’t help you much with that. So if you will ask which is the most used search engine in China, Baidu will be the answer.
• People who speak the Chinese language are required to use and understand the Chinese market through Baidu. 

7. Yandex

Yandex was founded in 2000 by 3 founders, Arkady Volozh, Elena Kolmanovskaya, and Ilya Segalovich. It originated in Russia and is named among the country’s best search engines. At present, it holds the largest search engine market share in Russia i.e. 65%.

Pros

• Yandex is a user-friendly search engine. 
• It ranks among the internet’s 30 most popular websites. 
• Its algorithms are less complex than Google, hence are easy to understand and optimize for. 
• The Paid ads systems are easy, cheap, and more flexible than Google, Bing, and Facebook. 
• It provides services like Yandex Maps, Yandex Music, Yandex Money, online translator, etc.

Cons

• There is much less traffic on Yandex as compared to Google. 
• Both the organic and paid competition is low. 
• Although the algorithms are less complex, other elements of Yandex create complications for users outside Russia.

Other search engines that you must know

1. Yahoo

Yahoo, as we all know, is one of the most liked in the list of search engines and email providers on the internet. It was founded in the year 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo. Currently powered by Bing, Yahoo ranks 11 among the Internet’s most visited websites. In the US, it is the default search engine for Mozilla Firefox browsers. And when it comes to the search engine market share, it holds 1.51%.

On one hand, it provides services like Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Mail, Finance, etc. On the other hand, it has also got many unaccomplished products like Yahoo Music, Yahoo Games, Yahoo Messenger, and Yahoo Directory.

2. DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo was founded in 2008 by Gabriel Weinberg. It is among those types of search engines that are renowned for safeguarding the privacy of the user. It is currently serving over 90 million searches every day, however, its market share is not more than 0.6%. 

DuckDuckGo does not have a search index of its own and partners with Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, etc. to provide results to search queries. These results include instant answers along with relevant search results from sources. Moreover, DuckduckGo does not fetch or store a user’s private data, nor does it contains ads. Hence, is a perfect search engine for those who want to keep their personal information and surfing patterns confidential.

3. Ask.com

Ask.com used to be the most used search engine when founded by David Warthen and Garrett Gruener in 1996. Till 2010, it worked in a question-answer web format where you get answers to your questions based on the large archive data. These answers were not that up to date as compared to Google or Bing.

However, in 2010, Ask.com closed down this search engine and launched a Q&A community. This community enabled answers from real people and then combined with the large archived data to find sites providing answers to the user’s queries. Currently, Ask.com holds a search engine market share of 0.42%.

4. Ecosia

Ecosia is another search engine founded by Christian Kroll in the year 2009. This internet search engine was created with the objective of encouraging finance for planting trees and restoration undertakings. The search engine market share of Ecosia is around 0.10%.

The search results in Ecosia are powered by Bing. It uses Display ads in search results to raise money to support the planting of trees. Whenever an ad is clicked, Ecosia earns a small share. To plant a new tree, the search engine requires 45 searches.

Moreover, it has partnered with Bing is SSL encrypted, which ensures that no one can track a user’s search history or surfing habits.

5. Aol.com

AOL.com runs among the top 10 most popular search engines. This New York-based search engine was founded in 1983 by Marc Seriff, Steve Case, Jim Kimsey, and William von Meister. In the search engine market share, AOL.com holds not more than 0.05% share. 

Moreover, it allows users to search images, videos, news, and other kinds of content. In the search results, users get to see two search bars, sponsored links, matching sites, and other product results. Its network contains many famous websites such as engadget.com, techchrunch.com, and huffingtonpost.com. And among its advertising services, come AOL Advertising, AOL mail, and AOL Platform.

6. Internet Archive

Among search engines other than Google, the last is Internet Archive. Founded in 1996 by Brester Kahle, the Internet Archive is basically a non-profit library of numerous images, free books, audio, videos, software, websites, etc. People can upload as well as download data on the Internet Archive search engine.

Conclusion- Most Popular Search Engines in the World

In the world of digitalization, search engines have become the best friends of users. Based on the above article, we know that search engines are important. They not only help users get desired information but also grow their business. We also read that Google, being the most popular search engine has the most sophisticated algorithm and leaves behind all other global search engines. However, search engines other than Google are not much behind in the race of serving user’s searches.

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