In 2008 & 2009, Google only listed just two major competitors – Microsoft and Yahoo. And now in 2010, Google lists 10 major competitors starting from Microsoft, Yahoo on top of the list. This is not surprising, BUT the surprise is that, Apple actually was not listed on the chart. I’ve compiled a list of competitors that are giving Google a kick and push to be more innovative and much more competitive. Google is sitting in hot water, especially after it was charged for allowing advertisers to run scams on their search engine.
1. Facebook
Facebook and Google are two of the fastest growing and largest companies on the internet, and so far Facebook’s popularity has really helped Google to see an increased earnings share. Facebook is complementary and positive for Google so far, but that could change if /when social media such as FaceBook finds a business model and attract ad dollars from other online media.
On January 15, 2013, Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a feature to help its users search for people and places within the social network. This is the company’s first major attempt at a product launch since its May 2012 initial public offering.
The new feature – called the “graph search” refers to Facebook’s growing content, data and membership. The “social graph” – will allow users to sort through pictures, people, places and members’ interests to find the answers to their queries.
2. Cuil
Cui is a search engine developed by a team of ex-Googlers and other top notch people from institutions such as IBM and Altavista. Cuil which is said to be a Google killer was launched on 28th July, 2008 and is said to be the world’s largest search engine, indexing ten times as many pages as Microsoft and three times as many pages as Google.
3. Twitter
Twitter is also considered to be a Google killer, but there are just too many “bugs” to get worked out for this to be a Google killer, at least in the short term. However it is a great tool for SEO but is not worth anything without Google.
More and more companies are including Twitter strategy in their online marketing and SEO campaigns. Tweets allow companies to send marketing messages to an audience that is already interested in their products or services, so the chances are good that followers will take advantage of the sale or special offer. Some companies — especially retail stores — now offer deals specifically for their Twitter followers. Offering a deal on Twitter allows the company to track how many people take advantage of the offer.
Twitter is also good at creatinf a way for companies to interact with their fans and customers. Many companies are also actively engaging their customers with questions, polls and other conversation starters via tweets. This intimate way of communicating helps build brand loyalty and identity because customers feel closer to their favorite brands when they can ‘talk’ directly to them.
4. Yahoo
Yahoo is seen rolling out a series of changes to their search technology. On the usability side, this search engine helps users to perform the search query while educating them for getting relevant results. As far as the findability side is concerned, Yahoo is now offering Flickr integration, embedded video and other universal search result features which according to Yahoo’s Tim Mayer is the most significant change Yahoo has made to their search business.
5. Wolfram Alpha
It is in everyone’s minds whether Wolfram Alpha will supplant Google? Not in the short term. Google is synonymous to search, as Xerox is for copying. Wolfram appears to be a largely scientific endeavor, but with the right kind of innovation, promotion and funding, it could find an audience in the near future.
6. Mahalo
This is a web directory launched in May 2007 by Jason Calacanis. This search engine differentiates from the others such as Google and Ask.com by tracking and building hand crafted result sets for many of the presently popular search terms.
7. Quintura
This is a specialized search engine which provides a visual semantic map and is much ahead the other search engines in terms of offering higher quantum of search results in one go. By extracting keywords from the search results it builds a word cloud. Users can refine their entry by clicking words in the cloud and in this way users can narrow the search and find the relevant information faster. “Quintura for kids” is an interesting section available for kids.
8. Powerset
This is a company based in San Francisco, California that is developing a natural language search engine for the internet. This unique search engine can help users find targeted answers to user questions.
9. Clusty
This is a metasearch engine developed by Vivismo that can offer groups of results. Vivísimo is a company built on Web search technology developed by Carnegie Mellon University researchers. Clusty adds new interface and features to the previous Vivisimo clustering web metasearch. There are also several tabs that offer metasearches for jobs, news, blogs and U.S. government info.
10. Microsoft’s Bing
Bing is likely to provide direct answers to questions as it makes use of a system similar to the new Wolfram Alpha. They will also concentrate on factors such as local interests, weather and health.
Bing does have several advantages that override Google. For instance, many of its users find that Google provides much more relevant search results for users. In fact, one blind study found that Internet users liked the Bing search results, two to one, over the search results that popped up on Google. This means that uses who are looking for difficult to find information can often find what they are looking for on Bing and are unable to find it on Google, especially with all the algorithm changes. Bing also beat Google in various tests when people were looking for transactional searches, such as if they were looking to sign up for school or make a specific purchase.
In the end, which search engine you choose to use depends on personal preferencea. Both Google and Bing can be trusted to bring forth timely results that are related to your search, but you might find that you are happier with the results on one site versus the other or Google vs Bing as of now. The best bet for those who are unsure of whether to use Google or Bing is to try both search engines until they find a personal favorite.
Leave a Reply