13 Alternative Search Engines That Find What Google Can’t
Google has become the standard search engine of virtually every web-goer on the internet today. In fact “to Google” is pretty much synonymous with “to search”.
But that certainly doesn’t mean that other search engines can’t do a decent, if not better, job and this list has been compiled for just this reason.
So check out this catalog of awesome alternative search engines that are certain to help you search faster and more efficiently on that World Wide Web.
Music & Video
MP3Realm
If you’re one of the countless people today who gets their music digitally, then MP3Realm is for you. The site features a basic search for MP3’s as well as song lyrics.
MP3s can be streamed, added to playlists and of course downloaded. The advanced search option also lets users browse MP3’s by genre (a ton to choose from) or by artist.
TuneFind
I’m sure that some part of all of our lives has been spent in front of the television and I always manage to find a song that catches my fancy no matter what I’m watching. That’s where TuneFind comes in; the site is dedicated to providing users with the names of artists/song titles that have appeared on their favorite television shows, and even movies.
You can even reverse look up artists, to see which films and shows their music has been featured on.
MuviBee
A site dedicated to the best of both worlds, MuviBee lets users search for music and music videos (via YouTube) that might be associated with the song. The site proves to be versatile and certainly unique, providing users with Top 10 Charts from iTunes, the US, UK and Germany as well as direct links to Amazon and iTunes if you should decide to purchase music you like.
ClipBlast
ClipBlast features short videos from a variety of mainstream sources, including Hulu, TBS, BBC etc. The site is easy to use and loaded with enough content to keep you busy for hours.
Blinkx
Blinkx is another quality video search engine that collects results from hundreds of video/television providers and incorporates them into your search. The site also lets you browse videos from a myriad of topics.
If, by the way, you’re having trouble with videos that are limited to region, like Hulu, then try out some of the neat solutions we’ve covered here at MUO.
Files & Others
Rapidshare1
Rapidshare has become a premium site for uploading and serving content for hungry web users. It’s natural then to expect a site devoted to searching for files on Rapidshare, and Rapidshare1 is it. The site is dead simple and all you need to get going is something to look for.
Filestube
Filestube takes Rapidshare1 to another level by aggregating its searches to include several other networks including MegaUpload, YouSendIt, Filefront etc. Searches can also be filtered by file type which adds more convenience to the engine.
FileSnatcher
Another good site, FileSnatcher lets you look for files on a few different file sharing networks, including Badongo, Mediafire and 4shared.
Recipes & Cooking
Cookstr
As the name implies, Cookstr is for the wannabe-chef in all of us. The site is clean and intuitive and searching is simple. What I like best about Cookstr is the wide range of search filters that they offer, some of which include searching for recipes based on chef, author, skill level, holiday, course, cost and much more.
Keep in mind that the site is still in beta and Cookstr will be adding a “menu-search” feature as well as helpful tips/techniques as the site develops.
RecipeZaar
RecipeZaar is another excellent website for searching up quality recipes for your next meal. Users can also search for ‘cookbooks’ which are a collection of another user’s recipes. Also, recipe results feature ratings and nutritional information.
Fun
Tickex
Trying to buy tickets online? Well then check out Tickex, the site that collects search results from multiple ticket providers for concerts, sporting events and theatre. Searches can be made by venue, country, event, city etc. The site also provides direct links to retailers to simplify your experience even further.
Quotiki
Looking for something clever to say in your next argument? Try out Quotiki, a quotation search engine that has collected some of the wisest and shrewd idioms the world over.
WhatsOpen
WhatsOpen is a young site, but its concept is awesome. They let users see what stores, malls and shops are currently open in their neighborhood and how long they’ll be open. As I’ve mentioned, the site is rather new and the working locations are still limited to a few key cities in the US of A, but rest assured new locations are being added as the site grows.
So there you have it readers, 13 awesome search engines for you to play with. Questions, comments, suggestions? Then drop us a line in the comments and share your thoughts with fellow MUO followers.
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http://rapidshare-search-engine.com/ is better than Rapidshare1 no annoying pop ups
Yes there are pop ups on this site and my virus checker picked up a Trojan…thank goodness Ihave that!
You missed out two good search engines :
http://downloadanystuff.org for downloading free stuff
and http://fatfingers.com/ for finding things on ebay
These are some excellent picks!
All are the same.
All are full of Ads
It is time people wake up to the grave dangers in putting everything into the corporate hands of just one or two companies (online or off). Therefore, I thank you for showing that it is not just possible, but doable.
Any good site that has quality FREE xxx stuff
redtube.com
yep
(Comments wont nest below this level)Have a look at MagicLamp (http://www.magiclamp.qsh.in)
A highly customized search to help find the following:
- Movies
- Songs
- Code
Makes use of google custom search but has a highly powerful customization. Additionally there are lists of ~1000 sites in each category to stress upon when searching. The results are just awesome.
Google is no more god…:)
Thanks for such a nice info.
Don’t forget the Science search engines Scirus and for papers Arxiv.org is invaluable. Arxiv is referenced regularaly as a source of information for the widely regarded NewScientist Magazine.
Thanks for sharing this James, really good resource for my business. Great that this post has been so productive in uncovering great info. Thanks everyone!
Try njouba.com to search torrents, rapidshare, PDF files,… and so on.
I like it so much.
Anyway, i love search on del.icio.us for tutorials, how-to’s pages, interesting articles and things like this. The links you get searching on del.icio.us have been seen interesting for a human person. And no robotics-automatic-systems can do this like a person.
Ok, but you missed mininova.org
No, not mininova – isohunt.com is better because it is indexing mininova and over 500 other torrent sites.
Good for people who don’t know how to harness the power of google.
For others, who are capable of understanding complex Google queries, you should try that. If you know what you are doing you can use Google to find just about anything.
The only other search engines I use are those integrated with Flickr or DeviantART (to find Creative Commons images).
hey nice say man i completely agree with u with correct keywords u can surely reveal the awesome power of google
Twitter’s search of all tweets is becoming my first choice search engine for some queries
http://search.twitter.com/
This could be the best human powered search engine out there.
What the hell Eliot, are you retarded? Yes that’s very useful, if you want to search twitter. That’s hardly a search engine.
Anyway, great list. Thanks!
Good point, well made.
I didn’t offer much explanation did I? Guess I was in a rush. Apologies.
search.twitter.com is great for searching for tweets containing links.
“filter:links” is good for this.
For example, if you wanted to find articles on oscar nominations try “oscar nominations filter:links”
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=&ands=oscar+nominations&phrase=&ors=¬s=&tag=&lang=all&from=&to=&ref=&near=&within=15&units=mi&since=&until=&filter=links&rpp=15
Now what’d be handy is if these results could be shown as just the links ordered by the number of times a link is tweeted – anyone know anything that does something like this? Thought I read about something on Mashable about this but can’t find it now.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Good list. http://www.fansnap.com & http://www.ticketstumbler.com do the same thing as tickex – check them out!
Mason, I have to say these are not too shabby.
Great info. I will be trying some of the music ones out with some of the many obscure tracks I am after.
Hi
Any good search engine for e books? particularly IT stream.I know few URL’s but they are not complete.
Srinivas
I’ve been trying to find a few but I’ve only come across some mediocre , you could try http://www.ebook-search-engine.com/, but again, its not my favorite site for ebooks.
Good Luck!
Thanks Kabir…
Srinivas
Try octoparts.com for hard-to-find electronic bits; it’ll search all sorts of datbases and vendor parts lists.
What a great list, have only seen 3 of them previously, big stumble bud
Thanks a bunch bebo
A good new search engines list except Google.
Glad you like it Seo!
Thank you for sharing this.
Thanks for the comment!
Nice post! maybe I’ll put a link on my blog unboredme.blogspot,com
Snazzy, I might use a few of them.
These are good but what about the growth in human-powered search and research services? I still have trouble filtering through the ads and jazz when I am doing research online. I may not be 100 percent on the human-driven services but sites like sweetsearch.com are certainly growing on me.
I bet you most of those are google backed queries for theirs sites….
You guys should look at this paid to search site,
its backed and powerd by Yahoo
they pay you to search,
Homepages Friends holds a deal with Yahoo and are the first paid to search company of its kind that holds a deal with a major search engine
Home pages friends has been working in the charity and public sector for sometime now and provide there revenue sharing toolbars to help raise funds for those organisations.
please check it out
homepagesfriends.net
To second Timothy’s comment above, I will say if you can’t find any of these things with Google, you are using it wrong. See here if you really want a powerful search that will find exactly what you’re looking for: http://johnny.ihackstuff.com/ghdb.php
hey jon… the postings on that link r old…. very old.
wow, thanks kabir. till now i thought search started and ended with google. cuil and zuula are ok as well.
Thanks for the suggestions Saurabh!
If the results of the above engines are not from google, they are likely to have come from a site using the same technology… I simply think there is only so far you can go without relying on some sort of expert or human-based filter to clear away the weeds and find what works. Mahalo is fine but seems increasingly weak. Sweetsearch.com is one just launched that appears to have some staying power.
Don’t forget mininova.org
This is a rili nice post.
awesome!
Midomi is another awesome search engine. You can hum/sing/whatever the tune and it will match up songs that sound like what you searched for.
Well, our search engine http://aafter.com does some cool useful stuff that others do not do. We also do lot less tracking or monitoring.
Regards,
Subhankar Ray
Subhankar, I’ve checked your engine out. It’s definitely something to be proud of, congrats and what you’ve accomplished!
Kabir,
Please, check out our search engine AAfter.com with simple features that no one has. Let me know what you think.
1. URL => multiple tinyurls
2. IP or domain => all about IP/ domain
and so on..
Cheers!
Subhankar Ray
Please, remove any duplicate comment. I had problem in commenting here.
Awesome list, great
For Rapidshare, you can take Advanced Search in Google and give domain as rapidshare.com.
Another excellent suggestion.
Your statement about “virtually everybody” using Google now is not true. In fact, there are more people than you think that use Yahoo. Yahoo has been around longer than Google. For those of us that have been using the internet since the ’90s Yahoo is usually the search engine of choice. For the younger crowd, I would agree that they use mostly Google.
I’ve been using the internet since the 90s and while, yes there was a time when yahoo was the end all be all, I switched to Google as soon as I knew about it.
yea nice article and nice comments
. informative
Excellent article!
RE: Jason. Google is by far the search engine of choice, there isn’t even a close second. Women prefer Yahoo! above other search engines, but Google is still king.
Good one Kabir.
First comes first is the Logic.
http://www.asknanu.com
Gud,, thanks alot
I think alot of the ability of a site to be found has to do with how well a site is built and optimized. Most are not optimized correctly and therefore the necessity for different search engines to try to figure out what a page or site is about.
Great post. I’m going to try some of these right now!
I think alot of the ability of a site to be found has to do with how well a site is built and optimized
didn’t like. thought rapidshare would be a great idea. yet every time I went to the site, advertisements jumped in my face….without any click on, or near or even appearance of said advertisement.
not cool.
For file hosting search engine, i prefer http://www.avun.com
Clean design, fast and much search result, no ads annoying.
Nice article. Appreciate Coostr.
Would like suggest my favorite.
Very very nice list! Thank you very much
Here’s the only problem with this list – Google finds just about anything. However most, if not all, of these sites are specialized whether it be for music, video, or what have you.
Just puttin’ it out there.
http://www.avun.com/
Hey Dirav, avun is a complete search engine, thanks.
Where’s did u get all this info? Its very usefull, thanks!
Nice List , Thank you.
But The Best I found is http://www.crawlrapidshare.com
it searches the net in real time.
I suggest you to add this to your list
I always use http://www.metacrawler.com. It uses many of the other search engines including Google and Yahoo!, combines the results, rates them, and orders them.
redtube
youporn
pornhub
tube8
this was an amazing list – never heard of any of them!
thanks nashya for avun search engine
I think there is no one who can compete google.
http://rapidlinkfind.com/ is very good at rapidshare.com files.
thanks for these great resources. I am really glad to find them
please take a look on the best way to search rapidshare
just go to rapidshare and type the thing you like to find and in miliseconds you have it
have fun
For those who are looking for shopping comparison then the best UK online shopping site is XYShop.
how about http://butiwanttowatchit.com/ videos search engines wrap into one
Try http://fileknow.com rapidshare search engine. Big and up to date database,
Thanks for such a nice info.
I personally prefer http://www.glotouch.com. It isn’t a search engine, but it works great as your homepage…you can choose any search engine you want.
Maybe engines need to search only trusted sites. I think http://search4alive.com is pretty good. I found everything like movies, music, programs, e-books even subtitles. They are not just giving the links and the content too. You can give it a try.
http://www.scrubd.com <<= documents & books