Articles in The 'Search Engines' Tag

Niche Search Engines Part 3: Wolfram|Alpha

by Michael Bergbauer

The next entry in our series continues the theme of differentiation. Google’s mission (on the search engine front) is to organize the information on the web and make it readily accessible. Wolfram|Alpha has the same goal, but takes a completely different approach – providing users with results they can’t get anywhere else.
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Niche Search Engines Part 2: Blekko

by Michael Bergbauer

Our first entry in this series explained how niche search engines rely on differentiation to attract users. Blekko is quite ambitious in this regard by offering a very different user experience, compared to Google or Bing.

Since its launch in 2010, Blekko’s focus has been on user intent and content quality. When we consult with clients about their onsite content, we tell them to write for users – not search engines. If they only cared about their Blekko ranking however, such advice wouldn’t be worth mentioning. Blekko strives to provide the narrowest set of quality results possible by eliminating any page that looks like it’s desperate for clicks. By using a Wikipedia-like editing system in combination with a proprietary algorithm, thin content, ad-filled pages, and duplicate content are blocked.

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Niche Search Engines Part 1: DuckDuckGo

by Michael Bergbauer

It’s no secret that Google (and to a degree, Bing) has an iron grip on the search engine market. But believe it or not, there are other search engines out there. As any business owner knows, the only way to compete with giants is to differentiate and do something special. In this series, we’ll cover some niche search engines that have interesting and useful features. These engines may represent only a tiny blip in the search engine industry, but they can come in handy the next time you need to do some specific searching. First up is DuckDuckGo, “The search engine that doesn’t track you.”
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