21 Best Search Engines in the World [2023]

Search engines are online tools that allow users to search for content on the internet. 

Google is the most popular. But many other search sites and apps get millions of visits each month.

Explore our list of the best search engines in the world (grouped by type, in no particular order). Or jump straight to our search engine FAQs.

Mainstream Search Engines

1. Google

Google is generally considered the world’s best search engine. It’s had over 88% market share since Statcounter began collecting data, in January 2009.

Not only was it the world’s most popular search engine in June 2023, but it was the world’s most visited website, with over 106.5 billion visits.

Google uses a vast number of algorithms (called “ranking systems”) to provide users with fast and accurate search results. It also offers other popular services—like Google Maps, YouTube, and Gmail.

Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) are typically populated with various SERP features (like featured snippets, People Also Ask sections, and knowledge panels), based on the type of the search query.

In February 2023, Google introduced its AI-powered search assistant called Bard.

Google has faced many criticisms over the years. The most common are related to the amount of data it collects about its users. That’s why privacy concerns are a common reason users seek Google alternatives.

2. Bing

Created by Microsoft in 2009, Bing is the second-largest search engine in the world. But that equated to just 2.77% market share in June 2023.

Bing’s strength lies in its multimedia search capabilities—namely advanced image and video search results. 

Another interesting feature is its rewards program. Every Bing search earns you points that can go toward gift cards and charitable donations.

In 2023, Bing became the first mainstream search engine to introduce an AI-powered search assistant in its search results.

Further reading: Learn how to get higher search engine rankings with our Bing SEO guide.

Privacy Search Engines

The market for privacy-oriented search engines is growing as more people become concerned about their online privacy.

As a result, many existing search engines are adding privacy-focused features to their platforms. 

3. DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is the most popular search engine that prioritizes user privacy. It doesn’t track, collect, or store any of your data. It still uses non-personalized ads, though.

The search results come from a variety of sources, including its own crawler and other search engines (but not Google). 

DuckDuckGo offers features such as advanced commands, which allow you to speed up your search. 

For example, if you type “!a family tents” into DuckDuckGo’s search bar, you’ll land directly on Amazon’s results page with family tents.

Also, DuckDuckGo’s search interface is easy to customize to your preferences. 

4. Startpage

Startpage is a search engine that focuses on user privacy and security. This includes no recording of personal data and search history, no profiling of users, and removal of IP addresses from Startpage’s servers. 

It sources its search results from Google. Which makes it a popular alternative for those who value privacy but still want the accuracy of Google’s search results.

The company also offers a secured email platform called StartMail.

5. Qwant

Qwant is a search engine that doesn’t track its users. Making it one of the best search engines for people concerned about their privacy.

Like other free search engines, Qwant funds itself through ads. But, because there are no cookies, Qwant’s advertisers cannot target ads to specific users.

Although it’s an English-language site, Qwant is developed and hosted in France.

6. Brave Search

Brave Search is a privacy-focused search engine that offers a private and anonymous search. 

You can use it within or outside of the Brave web browser. 

Unlike some other smaller search engines, Brave uses its own web index and algorithms. But you can enable “Google fallback.” This means Brave will also check Google to provide more accurate results.

Its Summarizer feature (highlighted above) is an AI-powered tool that provides direct answers in search results.

7. You.com

You.com is a relatively new search engine. It was founded in 2021 and uses Microsoft’s Bing results as a source of data. 

Similarly to other newer search engines, You.com focuses on privacy and personalization of the search results. 

You can pick from over 150 apps to add to the search engine rankings. For example, you can add sections with dedicated Amazon results, YouTube videos, TripAdvisor listings, etc. 

You.com also offers a set of AI-powered apps, including the chat assistant YouChat, a writing assistant called YouWrite, and an AI image generator called YouImagine.

8. Swisscows

Swisscows is a privacy-oriented search engine founded in 2014. It has its own web crawler and index, but it also uses Bing as a data source.

A unique feature of this search site is its family friendliness: It does not index or show pornographic or sexual results.

In addition to the search engine, Swisscows provides services like an email client, a virtual private network (VPN), and a privacy-focused messenger. 

You can set up Swisscows as your default search engine in Chrome by installing its plugin. 

International Search Engines

Search engines like Google cater to various regions and languages. But they don’t always provide the localized results people want.

Let’s look at some of the best search engines in non-English-speaking countries, such as China, South Korea, and Czechia.

9. Yandex

Yandex is the largest search engine in Russia, with 58.22% local market share as of June 2023. It is also used in other countries, including Belarus, Turkey, and Kazakhstan. 

Besides the Russian version, Yandex also has a global English version at yandex.com. 

The tech company behind Yandex offers many other products and services, including maps, a voice assistant, a ride-hailing service, a web browser, and a music streaming service.

In 2023, Yandex’s code leaked, including the list of all ranking factors used in its search algorithm. This led to many analyses and interpretations. 

Google and Yandex’s algorithms are often considered similar. And Yandex has hired many ex-Google employees.

Tip: Find out where your market is based with Semrush’s Market Explorer tool. Enter up to 100 competitors to see where their users are located.

10. Cốc Cốc Search

Cốc Cốc is a Vietnamese web browser and search engine with over 29 million users. 

It’s on our search engine list because it’s a leader in localization. Cốc Cốc can deliver the best possible results to Vietnamese users thanks to:

• Its own web crawler and index
• A database of local businesses
• Vietnamese language processing algorithms

One interesting feature is website verification: Official company websites are marked with a green tick icon.

11. Seznam

Seznam is a web portal. And the second most popular search engine in its native Czechia, with 15.71% local market share in June 2023.

It has a web crawler called SeznamBot, and a faster version called FreshBot (predominantly used for news websites).

You can read about the latest developments to the search engine on the Seznam Blog. But not all posts are available in English.

Tip: You can use robots.txt or meta robots tags to block web crawlers like Seznam’s from indexing certain pages on your site.

12. Naver

Naver is a web portal and search engine.

It’s the second most popular search engine in its native South Korea, with 35.35% of local market share in June 2023, according to Statcounter.

However, other sources claim that it’s the top search engine in the country.

Either way, Naver is reportedly losing users to AI chatbot services, such as Google Bard, Microsoft Bing, and ChatGPT. It plans to launch an AI-powered search service called SearchGPT later this year.

13. Baidu

Baidu is China’s largest search engine, with 61.47% market share in the country as of June 2023. 

Similarly to Google, Baidu offers a wide range of services. Like maps, news, an encyclopedia, and a cloud storage service.

Baidu’s search algorithm is tailored to the Chinese language and culture. So, if you’re not targeting the Chinese market, it may not be relevant to you. 

China’s government also heavily censors it. 

Tip: Check how your website ranks in Baidu with Semrush’s Position Tracking tool.

14. Sogou

Sogou is one of the most popular search engines in China, with 13.77% local market share in June 2023. 

It allows users to search text, images, music, and maps.

15. Petal Search

Petal Search is a mobile search engine app developed by Huawei, a Chinese technology company.

It gets search results from Bing’s index. Including images, videos, and news.

But many people use Petal Search to find mobile apps. 

Huawei cannot provide access to the Google Play Store, which is typically used to find apps on Android devices. This is due to political and trade restrictions.

16. Haosou

Haosou is a Chinese search engine created by Qihoo 360, a security technology company that also offers a web browser and antivirus software. 

Like other internet search engines, Haosou is subject to censorship laws in China. These policies are colloquially called the “Great Firewall.”

17. Shenma

Shenma is a Chinese mobile-only search engine launched by Alibaba and UCWeb. 

Shenma was built to challenge Baidu’s market share and capitalize on users increasingly using mobile over desktop for their search needs. This means mobile SEO is particularly important to webmasters wanting to rank highly in Shenma.

Other Search Engines

18. Ecosia

Ecosia is a search engine that donates a portion of its ad revenue to tree-planting initiatives around the world. And one of the top 10 search engines globally, based on market share.

Ecosia is a not-for-profit company that earns money from Microsoft Bing advertisements shown in its search results. Every month, it shares its financial results and how it spent the money. 

Ecosia’s search engine uses Bing as a data source. Besides standard types of results (All, Images, Shopping, Videos, etc.), it also offers quick links that will redirect your search query to different pages, such as Wikipedia, Amazon, and Google.

19. Yahoo

Launched in 1994, Yahoo is one of the oldest search engines on the internet. 

Microsoft’s Bing powers Yahoo’s search results. So, you’ll probably notice some similarities.

Besides serving as a web search engine, Yahoo has also evolved into a web portal. It offers various types of content, from what’s trending and the biggest news stories to the weather forecast and sports results.

20. Dogpile

Dogpile is a meta search engine that collects results from many of the top search engines (including Google and Yahoo). And aims to compile the best ones.

Its name comes from the rugby term “dogpile,” which refers to players piling on top of each other.

Dogpile has a canine mascot named Arfie. And users click a button titled “Go Fetch!” to perform a search.

21. AOL

AOL is a web portal and search engine owned by Yahoo. Its search results are powered by Bing. 

Like Yahoo, AOL is part of the Bing search network. This means sponsors can advertise across all three search engines. As well as related properties, like MSN.com.

Further reading: Learn more about advertising on search websites with our pay-per-click (PPC) guide.

The Future of Search Engines

AI will likely play a major role in the future of search engines.

In November 2022, OpenAI launched the AI chatbot ChatGPT. Two months later, it’s estimated to have reached 100 million users. Making it one of the fastest-growing consumer apps in history.

According to an Aberdeen Strategy & Research survey conducted in March 2023, 42% of professionals think they’ll use AI-powered chatbots to find answers online in the future. Just 24% think they’ll use search engines.

So, it’s little wonder that search engines are eager to introduce generative AI (i.e., AI models that produce creative and novel outputs) to the search experience.

• Nov. 30, 2022: OpenAI introduces ChatGPT
• Feb. 6, 2023: Google introduces its Bard chatbot
• Feb. 7, 2023: Microsoft introduces Bing Chat, which uses OpenAI
• March 8, 2023: Bing announces that AI helped it surpass 100 million users
• May 20, 2023: Google announces that generative AI is coming to search

There are also rumors that Apple is working on a search engine to rival Google’s. 

As the dominant player in the smartphone and tablet markets, Apple could massively disrupt the search engine industry.

Search Engine FAQs

What Is a Search Engine?

A search engine is an online tool that allows users to search for content on the internet. 

It continuously explores webpages and other types of content and stores information about them. When a user enters a search query, it returns the most relevant results based on its internal ranking algorithms. 

What Are the Most Popular Search Engines?

The most popular search engines in the world are Google, Bing, and Yandex, according to Statcounter data for June 2023.

Let’s look at statistics for our full list of search engines, sorted by domain traffic (where available):

* Source: Semrush’s Traffic Analytics tool, June 2023. Based on the linked domain/subdomain/subfolder.

** Source: Statcounter, June 2023. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Which Search Engines Use Their Own Crawlers?

Here are some examples of search engines that crawl the internet and have their own index of websites:

Many smaller search engines use either Google or Bing as their source of search results data. Some of them (marked “partially”) use a hybrid approach—using both their own crawler and third-party data. 

Tip: Semrush’s Site Audit tool crawls your site like a search engine crawler. To help you identify issues that could harm your SEO.

Which Search Engines Use AI?

Search engines that either use AI assistants or claim to power their search results with AI are:

What Is the Oldest Search Engine?

Archie, founded in 1990, is considered the first internet search engine ever created. Among the oldest search engines that still exist today, we can list WebCrawler, Yahoo, and Lycos—all created in 1994.

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of practices that help your website rank higher in search engine results. As a general rule, the higher you rank in search engines, the more search traffic you get. You can learn more about SEO here:

Also, don’t forget to create a free Semrush account and improve the SEO of your website.