11 Ways to Search Without Google

As of this writing, Google doesn’t own the whole world. But it does have a solid lock on our browsing habits. Want proof? Try typing “good” into the address bar of your browser did you accidentally type “goog”? Yeah, me too. When a coworker heard I was writing this story, he asked (semi-jokingly) “but if I’m using a different search engine, how will I get Google results back?”

Depending on who you ask, Google accounts for between 40 and 50-something percent of the search engine market (add in Yahoo and MSN and the figure jumps to around 90 percent). And rightly so the service gives speedy results and has a very good user interface.

But don’t you ever want to try a different search engine, just to see where it takes you? After all, Google’s search results are based on relevance and popularity, so scrolling through Google results isn’t the best way to get off the beaten path and discover new Web territory.

Here, for your surfing pleasure, are 11 ways to do exactly that. Included in our list are sites like ChaCha.com, where a real live “Guide” takes your query and returns related results tailor-made to your specifications. The service is free, and is quirky enough to be a lot of fun (a friend of mine learned first-hand that if you flirt with your guide, sometimes they’ll flirt back, though of course that’s against ChaCha policy). The service doesn’t require any registration, and it’s completely free.

StumbleUpon gives you thumbs-up/thumbs-down icons in your toolbar and lets you rate pages and sites you come across. As StumbleUpon learns your preferences, it gets better at directing you to stuff you’ll like. There’s also a social aspect; you can add other people with similar interests to your friends list, and their preferences will further refine your search results. StumbleUpon’s Web site can be slow at times, but it’s a great way to find Web content you wouldn’t be exposed to otherwise.

Check out the rest of our non-Google search picks in our slideshow.