The Top Search Engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo

If you're going to look up something on the internet, statistics say that you are 85.35% likely to be using Google. If you're on of the 6.15% partial to Yahoo then you may be using it, or if you have been pulled in by the interesting label of the first "decision engine," then you will be one of the 3.16% who uses Bing. Each of these search engines have found that there is a vast amount of money to be made in the searching industry, but what makes them different from one another?

Bing and Yahoo

July 29, 2009 Microsoft and Yahoo announced that a deal had been made between them so that Bing would now power Yahoo search. The two search engines combined do not even make a dent into the huge volume of users that Google brings in, but with heavy advertising Bing has been able to get its name out as the first "decision engine." This has a vague meaning, but what most impressed me about the search engine is its ability to change media searches depending on what you are searching. A search on Beyonce, for example will result in a picture of her and some links to some of her songs in a neat format followed below by actual results.

Bing also automatically corrects spelling for commonly misspelled words, which is a nice feature. Bing includes everything that Google does including a nice map service much like Google's. The search page features a different picture every day, mostly of exotic or breathtaking locations. Yahoo is essentially a weaker version of Google. It has a clean look and some nice quick features, such as the ability to click "Wikipedia" whenever you search something if you only want Wikipedia pages in your results. With Bing now powering Yahoo, the two may be able to increase their popularity. There is a lot of money in the search industry, as titans Google have found out.

Google

Google is the most popular search engine by far and has been for a long time. In fact, Google.com is the most visited website in the world. As a result, advertisers are willing to pay big money in order to have their ads on the Google results page. This money from advertisers is where search engines like Google get their money. Google manages to not only provide you with the search results that you need, but also a host of other useful things. Google weather, time, stock quotes, sports scores, unit and currency conversion (type something like 100 USD in Yen), maps, movie showtimes and more.

It's no wonder with all of these things why Google has gained popularity and kept it. Google maps is one of its most extensive projects; it takes a hint from mapquest.com and allows users to get directions from any two points as well recently adding useful pictures of exact turns taken by Google employees. Google also demonstrates a certain amount of creativity in the way they change their Google icon on holidays and special events.

At the end of the day, which search engine you choose it a matter of preference much like choosing between Apple or PC computers. I am impressed by the features of Bing.com, but only time will tell if it becomes a serious competitor with Google.