Search engines, including web search engines, selection-based search engines, metasearch engines, desktop search tools, and web portals and vertical market websites have a search facility for online databases.
Name | Language | Backend ownership |
---|---|---|
Ask.com | Multilingual | Google ![]() |
Baidu | Chinese | Baidu ![]() |
Brave Search | Multilingual | Brave ![]() |
Dogpile | English | Metasearch engine |
DuckDuckGo | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing ![]() |
Ecosia | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing ![]() |
Elasticsearch | Multilingual | Apache 2.0 until 2021, then Elasticsearch |
Exalead | Multilingual | Cloudview ![]() |
Excite† | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing ![]() |
Gigablast | English | Apache License 2.0 |
Multilingual | Google ![]() | |
HotBot | English | Microsoft Bing ![]() |
Lycos | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing ![]() |
MetaCrawler | English | Metasearch engine |
Microsoft Bing | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing ![]() |
Mojeek | Multilingual | Mojeek ![]() |
Opensearch | Multilingual | Apache License 2.0 (Elasticsearch fork) |
Petal | Multilingual | Huawei ![]() |
Qwant | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing ![]() |
Searx | Multilingual | Metasearch engine |
Sogou | Multilingual | Tencent ![]() |
Startpage | English | Google ![]() |
Swisscows | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing ![]() |
WebCrawler | English | Microsoft Bing ![]() |
YaCy | Multilingual | GPL-2.0-or-later |
Yahoo! Search† | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing ![]() |
Yandex | Multilingual | Yandex ![]() |
Youdao† | Chinese | NetEase ![]() |
You.com | English | Microsoft Bing ![]() |
† Main website is a portal
Name | Language | Country |
---|---|---|
Accoona | Chinese, English | China, United States |
Biglobe | Japanese | Japan |
Daum | Korean | Korea |
Nate | Korean | Korea |
Egerin | Kurdish | Kurdistan (Bing backend[citation needed]) |
Fireball | German, English | Germany |
Goo | Japanese | Japan |
Leit.is | Icelandic, English | Iceland |
Maktoob | Arabic, English | Arab World |
Miner.hu | Hungarian | Hungary |
Najdi.si | Slovenian | Slovenia |
Naver | Korean | Korea |
Parsijoo | Persian | Iran |
Pipilika | Bengali, English | Bangladesh |
Rambler | Russian | Russia |
Rediff | India | |
Search.ch | Switzerland | |
Sesam | Norway, Sweden | |
Seznam | Czech | Czech Republic |
Walla! | Israel | |
Yahoo! Japan | Japanese | Japan (Google backend) |
Yongzin | Tibetan | China |
ZipLocal | English | Canada, United States |
Main article: Dark web |
General:
Academic materials only:
See also: Enterprise search |
Main article: Job search engine |
Search engines dedicated to a specific kind of information
See also: Multimedia search |
These search engines work across the BitTorrent protocol.
Main article: List of question-and-answer websites |
See also: Question answering |
Main article: Search appliance |
Desktop search engines listed on a light purple background are no longer in active development.
Name | Platform | Remarks | License |
---|---|---|---|
HP Autonomy | Windows | IDOL Enterprise Desktop Search, HP Autonomy Universal Search.[2] | Proprietary, commercial |
Beagle | Linux | Open-source desktop search tool for Linux based on Lucene. Unmaintained since 2009. | A mix of the X11/MIT License and the Apache License |
Copernic Desktop Search | Windows | Major desktop search program. The full trial version downgrades after the trial period automatically to the free version, which is (anno 2018) limited to indexing a maximum of 10.000 files. | Proprietary (30 day trial) |
DocFetcher | Cross-platform | Open-source desktop search tool for Windows and Linux, based on Apache Lucene | Eclipse Public License |
dtSearch Desktop | Windows | Proprietary (30 day trial) | |
Everything | Windows | Find files and folders by name instantly on NTFS volumes | Freeware |
GNOME Storage | Linux | Open-source desktop search tool for Unix/Linux | GPL |
Google Desktop | Linux, Mac OS X, Windows | Integrates with the main Google search engine page. As of September 14, 2011, Google has discontinued this product. | Freeware |
ISYS Search Software | Windows | ISYS:Desktop search software. | Proprietary (14-day trial) |
Locate32 | Windows | Graphical port of Unix's locate & updatedb | BSD License[3] |
Lookeen | Windows | Desktop search product with Outlook plugin and limited support for other formats via IFilters, uses Lucene search engine. | Proprietary (14-day trial)[4] |
Nepomuk | Linux | Open-source semantic desktop search tool for Linux. Has been replaced by Baloo in KDE Applications from release 4.13 onward. | License SA 3.0 and the GNU Free Documentation License 1.2 |
Recoll | Linux, Unix, Windows, macOS | Open-source desktop search tool for Unix/Linux | GPL [5] |
Spotlight | macOS | Found in Apple Mac OS X "Tiger" and later OS X releases. | Proprietary |
Strigi | Linux, Unix, Solaris, Mac OS X and Windows | Cross-platform open-source desktop search engine | LGPL v2 [6] |
Terrier Search Engine | Linux, Mac OS X, Unix | Desktop search for Windows, Mac OS X (Tiger), Unix/Linux. | MPL v1.1[7] |
Tracker | Linux, Unix | Open-source desktop search tool for Unix/Linux | GPL v2 [8] |
Tropes Zoom | Windows | Semantic Search Engine (no longer available)[9] | Freeware and commercial |
Unity Dash | Linux | Part of Ubuntu Desktop | GPL v3,[10] LGPL v2.1[11] |
Windows Search | Windows | Part of Windows Vista and later OSs. Available as Windows Desktop Search for Windows XP and Server 2003. Does not support indexing UNC paths on x64 systems. | Proprietary |
X1 Desktop Search | Windows | Major desktop search product along with Copernic Desktop Search | Proprietary (14-day trial)[12] |
Main article: Metasearch engine |
Name | Language |
---|---|
Dogpile | English |
Excite | English |
Info.com | English |
Kayak.com | Multilingual |
Mamma.com | |
MetaCrawler | English |
MetaGer | Multilingual |
Mobissimo | Multilingual |
Otalo.com | English |
Publisher's clearinghouse Search and Win | |
Searx | Multilingual |
Skyscanner | Multilingual |
Wego.com | Multilingual |
See also: Natural language search engine and Semantic search |
See also: Enterprise search |
Name | Language |
---|---|
Seeks (open-source) | English |
YaCy (free and fully decentralized) | Multilingual |
See also: Search engine privacy |
See also: Semantic search |
Name | Description | Speciality |
---|---|---|
Evi | Specialises in knowledge base and semantic search | answer engine |
Swoogle | Searching over 10,000 ontologies | Semantic web documents |
Yebol | defunct | |
Yummly | Semantic web search for food, cooking, and recipes | food related |
See also: Social search, Relevance feedback, and Human search engine |
Main article: Visual search engine |
Main article: List of search engines by popularity |
Name | Backend ownership | Demise |
---|---|---|
iWon | Ask.com | Shut down after AT&T merger[citation needed] |
Teoma | Ask.com | Merged to Ask.com which still uses its algorithms |
A9.com | Microsoft Bing | Redirect to Amazon homepage (parent company) |
AOL | Google until 2015, then Microsoft Bing | Merged to Yahoo! |
Alexa Internet | Microsoft Bing | Bought by Amazon in 1999, shut down in 2021 |
Ciao! | Microsoft Bing | Shut down in 2018 |
Ms. Dewey | Microsoft Bing | January 2009 |
Groovle | Taken over by Google after Google sued for name similarity | |
MySpace Search | Function taken over by Google in 2006 | |
Mystery Seeker | Novelty "search"; went offline in 2017 | |
Netscape | Now redirects to AOL | |
Ripple | as of 2017 at the latest | |
Ecocho | Google, then Yahoo! | |
Forestle | Google, then Yahoo! | Redirected to Ecosia in 2011 |
Rectifi | Yahoo! | |
Yippy | IBM Watson | Redirected to DuckDuckGo in 2021 |
Grams | Grams (anonymous owner) | Closed in 2017 |