I use Google out of habit and because I have always thought it is the best search engine. I’ve never objectively tried to compare major search engines and as a result I haven’t changed.
Blind Search allows you to compare the results of Google, Bing and Yahoo. You search for a term in it, and it brings up all 3 results side-by-side, but you are not told which site is which. You then say which you think is better, and the names are then revealed!
After using the site a dozen or so times, a clear image of what is the best search engine for you forms.
I was surprised that Google was only best for me in about a third of searches; I found Bing’s results much more relevant. (The creator of the site works for Microsoft though; although it isn’t affiliated to them!)
They also offer an OpenSearch plug-in (so it can be added to Firefox’s search bar, for example) and a plugin IE8. It also works for image search. Unfortunately, the site currently only works in US localisations, so one can’t use it to search google.co.uk etc.
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8 Responses to “Take a blind test and change your searching habits”
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[...] I was surprised that Google was only best for me in about a third of searches; I found Bing’s results much Read more at http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/22/take-a-blind-test-and-change-your-searching-habits/ [...]
Have ever try Exalead ?
It’s an alternative french search engine :
http://www.exalead.com/search/
That’s a nice method of opening people’s eyes :)
This is the result I got:
Google: 5 (Best)
Bing…..: 3
Yahoo..: 1 (Worst)
Google is best, Bing is good and Yahoo suck…
Every single time I got Google. Maybe the things I was searching were too nerdy… or Google is just the best.
I found Google Images to be consistently good, but the text search was mixed. I recognized a few typical Google listings, and some boneheaded stuff that Bing will work through eventually. Yahoo was only obvious from their internal linking (Yahoo Music, etc).
I tried two times and both times chose Google.
Then I tried the same search on Bing and had pretty different result. Hmmm….