When the internet first opened to the public, finding content, services or even just regular websites proved to be a bit difficult. In a short period of time, a plethora of search engines popped up and flourished under the decentralized and not-yet-monopolized world wide web. Many may remember search engines such as Lycos, AltaVista and several others, which are unknown to many younger internet users today. As time wore on, many search engines ceased to exist or were absorbed by a select few that continued to grow in size. Despite the dominance of search engines like Google and Bing, there are still many different search engines available and several provide unique experiences for those who use them. Today, we’ll talk about four of these in the first part of our two-part series on little-known search engines.

Ask.com

The big search engines have tried to refine their algorithms in recent years to improve search-related queries that come in the form of a question, but Ask.com has been perfecting the game for many years. Originally known as Ask Jeeves, this search engine focuses on providing answers to questions and boasts roughly one-quarter of a billion monthly users. Currently ranked as the fourth most popular search engine in the English world, Ask.com may not be the best search engine to worry about if you’re pinging for SEO, but it can be very useful when wanting to get a simple and straightforward answer to a question.

WebCrawler

If you ever get confused by the amount of paid ads mixed in with your search results and want to avoid them, then consider using WebCrawler. With more than 50 million monthly users, WebCrawler may be a smaller search engine, but it provides all of the same functionality and flexibility that other major search engines do – without the spamming of advertisements. Additionally, many have reported that the number of natural links returned by WebCrawler surpasses that of even Google. If WebCrawler continues to gain attention from those who value search engine experiences over mainstream convenience, it may very well become a more dominant search engine in the near future.

Infospace

Infospace is actually behind WebCrawler and several other services, but provides a useful search engine experience on its own. There are numerous websites that already integrate Infospace search solutions into their platforms, as it is designed specifically for finding a wide variety of results relating to earning revenue on the web. As with many search engines, Infospace utilizes the services of existing search engines to provide a custom user experience and integrates this into many different micro-search portals. If you are wanting to provide users with a unique search experience on your website or need to boil down your own searches to more relevant results for monetization strategies or web development assistance, then consider checking this one out.

Some search engines are designed to index content with pinging for SEO in mind. Others are built for an exclusive end-user experience. With such a a monopoly on search engine use today, many people are missing out on some great search engines available to them. Tomorrow, we’ll cover another three great search engines that can provide utility to you in day-to-day life!