A web search engine is a software system that is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are generally presented in a line of results often referred to as search engine results pages (SERPs). The information may be a mix of web pages, images, and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in databases or open directories. Unlike web directories, which are maintained only by human editors, search engines also maintain real-time information by running an algorithm on a web crawler.
A search engine operates in the following order:
Web crawling
Indexing
Searching
Top 15 Most Popular Search Engines | July 2015
Here are the top 15 Most Popular Search Engines as derived from our eBizMBA Rank which is a continually updated average of each website's Alexa Global Traffic Rank, and U.S. Traffic Rank from both Compete and Quantcast."*#*" Denotes an estimate for sites with limited data.
1. Google:
1 - eBizMBA Rank | 1,100,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1 - Compete Rank | 1 - Quantcast Rank | 1 - Alexa Rank.The world's most popular search engine.
2. Bing
15 - eBizMBA Rank | 350,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 5 - Compete Rank | 19 - Quantcast Rank | 22 - Alexa Rank. Microsoft's entry into the burgeoning search engine market. Better late than never.
3. Yahoo! Search
18 - eBizMBA Rank | 300,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *8* - Compete Rank | *28* - Quantcast Rank | NA - Alexa Rank
4. Ask
25 - eBizMBA Rank | 245,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 14 - Compete Rank | 31 - Quantcast Rank | 31 - Alexa Rank
5. Aol Search
245 - eBizMBA Rank | 125,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *250* - Compete Rank | *240* - Quantcast Rank | NA - Alexa Rank
6. Wow
271 - eBizMBA Rank | 100,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 20 - Compete Rank | *26* - Quantcast Rank | 767 - Alexa Rank |
7. WebCrawler
511 - eBizMBA Rank | 65,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 100 - Compete Rank | 759 - Quantcast Rank | 674 - Alexa Rank |
8. MyWebSearch
545 - eBizMBA Rank | 60,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *105* - Compete Rank | 1,124 - Quantcast Rank | 405 - Alexa Rank |
9. Infospace
892 - eBizMBA Rank | 24,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *66* - Compete Rank | *500* - Quantcast Rank | 2,110 - Alexa Rank |
10. Info
1,064 - eBizMBA Rank | 13,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 378 - Compete Rank | 877 - Quantcast Rank | 1,938 - Alexa Rank |
11. DuckDuckGo
2,153 - eBizMBA Rank | 13,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,323 - Compete Rank | 3,479 - Quantcast Rank | 658 - Alexa Rank |
12. Blekko
2,280 - eBizMBA Rank | 12,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 862 - Compete Rank | 1,461 - Quantcast Rank | 4,518 - Alexa Rank |
13. Contenko
2,402 - eBizMBA Rank | 11,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *200* - Compete Rank | *2,500* - Quantcast Rank | 4,505 - Alexa Rank |
14. Dogpile
2,421 - eBizMBA Rank | 10,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,734 - Compete Rank | 1,446 - Quantcast Rank | 3,084 - Alexa Rank |
15. Alhea
4,300 - eBizMBA Rank | 7,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 451 - Compete Rank | *1,225* - Quantcast Rank | 11,225 - Alexa Rank |