Becoming a household name is no mean feat, but Google is more than that: It is an icon and one of the most powerful forces in the technology industry. Although it has branched into mobile devices, operating systems, social networks and almost every other market, Google's search function is still its best-known feature and a major source of revenue for the company.
It has swallowed up former rivals, such as Ask.com and AOL Search, and is used by approximate 900 million people every month. Of course, anywhere there is profit to be made there is someone else trying to grab it, and search engines are no different. These are Google's top five competitors, based on their number of users in 2012.
Blekko
Blekko is a young search engine launched in 2010. It is designed to provide higher-quality results than Google and excludes pages from known content farms and spammers. Its system is also slightly different, relying on slashtags to emphasize important phrases and keywords in a query.It is policed by its own users, who report poor websites and add valuable ones into the database. Blekko has seen moderate success since it went public and has worked with Mozilla to replace the developer's reliance on either Bing or Google. Currently, it sees about 9 million users per month.
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MyWebSearch
MyWebSearch is a legitimate search engine that has soiled its own reputation through aggressive malware distribution. This means that it tags along with other programs, offering to be installed at the same time, and then attaches itself to Web browsers as a toolbar. Through these tactics, it sees an estimated 19 million users per month, though it is hard to determine how many of them are voluntary.Yahoo! Search
In 2009, Yahoo! Search came under Bing's management and has slowly been transitioning to the Bing model ever since. It once used Google's technology as the building blocks of its engine, but the two companies have been on strained terms since their split in 2004.Picking up Yahoo! proved to be a masterful move by Microsoft, however, by providing another 15 percent of the market share and, more importantly, denying it to Google. Yahoo! Search has been knocked down from its long-standing second place in unique visitors per month at 160 million, but it remains a force to be reckoned with.
Bing
Microsoft's Bing was initially greeted with skepticism by casual browsers and critics alike, but this newcomer is making a big name for itself. In just a few short years, it has rocketed to 165 million users per month and continues to eat away at Google's advantage.Bing is banking on a more intuitive and socially involved search system, which seems to be improving results and winning over more converts by the day. Whether it will ever surpass Google remains to be seen, but it has been almost two decades since the tech giant has faced such stiff competition.
Amazon
Amazon does not peddle information, but as the largest online retailer in the world its search function is a major threat to Google. A recent study found that 30 percent of consumers begin their hunt for an item on Amazon, and only 13 percent used a search engine.Because Google makes most of its money from advertising on search results, this represents a very big problem, especially when its most lucrative advertisements are for products. For now, Google seems to be running strong and shows no signs of slowing down, but it won't be able to ignore the hungry wolves nipping at its feet for very much longer.
Jeremy LongAbout the Guest Author:
Jeremy Long works as a software developer and has contributed to the Top Online Computer Science Degrees for others interested in turning their computer hobbies into a career.
