Which search provider do you prefer?

So which of the big search providers do you prefer and why?

Google. Habit.

Google for one very simple reason: simplicity. I like minimalism in web design (hence why I design pages this way) and Google has minimalism down with their home page. I don't go to a search engine home page to get weather, news, entertainment (I don't go anywhere for that) and sports info. Why do eight different things on a home page when none of them are done very well and do little to improve the search experience?

I use Google. I have as long as I can remember and I've tried others as they came on the scene. They just couldn't draw me in.
Google seems to be clear, concise, uncluttered and not distracting.

I prefer Google; I've used it from since I was little, and I like their layout - simple yet effective. (And I like how they change their logo for special occasions/holidays)

I use Google because it is by far the best out there. I ran tests several years ago using side by side comparisons between Google, MSN and Yahoo searching for the same terms in all 3 search engines. I expected minor differences but the results for MSN were startling. Any time I searched for something which was unfavorable to Microsoft or it's close business allies the results that came up on the first page of Google or Yahoo were buried 10 pages back with MSN if they appeared at all.

The whole Google China thing got me wondering who alerted the Chinese to search engine censorship. What's amazing to me is the lack of flack against Microsoft for never even putting up a fight. I strongly suspect Microsoft is who actually goosed China to start censoring search results since they have been doing it for years. Not only topics unfavorable to Microsoft, but also topics which are favorable to "enemies" and competitors. This massive bias in Microsoft search engines means I will NEVER use them for anything important.

Yahoo showed a different bias in the tests. They intermixed paid and usually very meaningless commercial hits on searches which was extremely annoying. Other than that the search results were pretty consistent with Google searches. You just had to wade through more pages of hits to get the same results.

On neutral searches all 3 engines tended to produce the same results.

Google is an Open Source bastion which contributes a great deal back to the community. Yahoo also uses open source but rarely gives back to the community. In fact you often have to work very hard to get at their protocols so that you can actually use them on something other than Windows machines. Microsoft's revamped search engine Bing is the product of a company which hates innovation, hates freedom and advocates censorship as well as invasion of privacy. Before the bad PR hit them they were big advocates of DRM for example. Even going as far as attempting to force Intel and AMD to enforce DRM at the chip level. Would you really trust something as important as your search results to a company like that?

So the choice is easy for me. Google better represents my beliefs, does the best job, is faster and I feel good about using Google. So that's what I use.

Google. Always relevant results.

Google as stated above AND offers of searching pages from Australia only if desired.

I'm not breaking the trend. Google is my homepage.

I don't even go to google to do a search...just type it in the search bar it does it on it's own.

Google out of habit, and somehow it just seems more natural to say "Just Google it" than "Just Bling it".

I used Bing for about a month just to see what it was like. For the most part, the results between Google and Bing were almost consistent. I switched back to Google for some reason, but I can't remember why. I'm guessing it was something very minor with Bing.

However, I do really like Bing's image search. I like just scrolling down the limitless page, instead of clicking through pages 1-10. It is a welcoming feature that I wish was used more often. …And it looks like Google copied it from Bing, interesting!

iWhat said:

I used Bing for about a month just to see what it was like. For the most part, the results between Google and Bing were almost consistent. I switched back to Google for some reason, but I can't remember why. I'm guessing it was something very minor with Bing.

However, I do really like Bing's image search. I like just scrolling down the limitless page, instead of clicking through pages 1-10. It is a welcoming feature that I wish was used more often. …And it looks like Google copied it from Bing, interesting!

Click to expand...

Fatest Fox plugin takes cares of that for Firefox users. The limitless page thing that is.

CrimsonRequiem said:

Fatest Fox plugin takes cares of that for Firefox users. The limitless page thing that is.

Click to expand...

That plugin looks really nice. I don't use Firefox, but it looks like it's available for Google Chrome too, which is what I use. I'll try it out.

Always used Google.
Figured MS Bing would just screw it up.
Yahoo plain su... er is no good.
Never knew there was an "other", but if there was, and it was good, I'd use it. I've worked at a google data center, I'm an IBEW electrician, and I despise the company. The search engine works great though.

Google. Uncluttered website design. Simple.

Bing just has too much going for it.

Always used Google because it isn't Microsoft, and Apple doesn't have one to equal it.

LL

Google for serious searching, Goodsearch (Yahoo) for other

I use Google for professional work for the reasons noted in other responses. However, I am also Treasurer for The Dessoff Choirs, a NYC-based group that performs our own choral concerts and also collaborates with well-known symphonies such as NY Philharmonic and American Symphony Orchestra. see www.dessoff.org. (A fun gig this season is doing a live soundtrack to accompany a showing of Lord of the Rings at Radio City Music Hall.) Like most arts organizations we are perennially fund-raising. Goodsearch is a website that provides search capability based on Yahoo. Non-profit organizations like ours enroll with them, and then ask people to use it as they would Google, first specifying one of the many enrolled non-profits, such as us. Each search generates a small amount of money paid by advertising that eventually goes to the organization specified by the individual user. It's not a king's ransom, but in the highly competitive performing arts fund-raising world every search counts. If you don't need the uncluttered precision of Google, it is good enough for many purposes.

I prefer Devilfinder, because it is accurate and straightforward. My original, and main reason for using it is for privacy reasons. I don't really trust Google any longer.

I use Minuet to check Darthmouth's Gopher for everything I need. Last I checked, they had a catalog of over 6000 list servers.