Everyone knows that Google Search is one of the best ways to look something up online. Still, several websites are specifically designed to help you find what you’re looking for more quickly and efficiently than Google can provide.
This article will go over the ten best Google alternatives according to their intended purpose and how they can help you with that specific task. So, if you’re trying to find information on something obscure, want to keep your search history private, or are just looking for new ways to explore your interests, there are alternatives you can try.
Let’s get started!
Context
- 10 Sites to Try Instead of Google Search
- Great Recipes: Cookpad
- Stock Photos: Unsplash
- Videos: YouTube
- Music and Podcasts: Spotify
- People: Nuwber
- Local Businesses: Yelp
- Travel Guidance: TripAdvisor
- Movies: Netflix
- eBooks: Amazon
- Sports News: ESPN
- Conclusion
10 Sites to Try Instead of Google Search
1) Great Recipes: Cookpad
With over 800 million visitors per month as of 2021, Cookpad is likely one of the most visited cooking websites on our list. Cookpad allows users to browse through popular recipes, comment, rate them, and share them with friends. It also offers users a simple way to publish their own recipes.
If you're looking for something specific and all you know is a few keywords, Cookpad's search engine can handle that with ease. This is one of the best recipe search engines because it allows you to save your recipes and access them on multiple devices.
2) Stock Photos: Unsplash
Though its collection is not as extensive as Google’s, Unsplash has been curated to ensure that every image uploaded on its platform is high-quality and totally free. With over 3.48 million photos in its library and more than 265,000 contributing photographers, the Getty Images-owned website is possibly one of the leading photography websites worldwide.
Unsplash is a new breed of search engine that puts beautiful high-resolution pictures at your fingertips. This is an excellent option if you’re looking to build visual inspiration into your content marketing strategy and have been trying to reduce your use of low-quality stuff.
The website isn’t just good for finding free images, but it’s also an excellent resource for learning how to improve your photography skills. In addition, registration is optional, so it doesn’t require any signup process to use their service.
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3) Videos: YouTube
YouTube is owned by Google, and it offers tons of user-generated videos. You can use it to find any kind of video you want, and the chances are that you’ll find your exact thing right away. It has a wide variety of videos on every topic, and there are several levels of sorting based on popularity, trending, etc.
Furthermore, YouTube lets you upload videos and share them with your friends or followers. So when looking for video content, this search engine should be #1 on your list.
4) Music and Podcasts: Spotify
Finding new music used to be a matter of wandering around a record store or flipping through channels on MTV. Today, you’re better off with Spotify. The digital music streaming service has millions of songs from thousands of artists—and you can listen to practically anything from start to finish without interruption.
With over 82 million songs available, Spotify has quickly become one of the best places to find new music and podcasts. One of its most popular features is Discover Weekly, which presents a personalized selection of new music tailored to each listener.
Spotify also offers curated playlists and suggestions based on your previous searches, making it one of the best search engines for finding new music. However, this freemium service provides both paid and free versions.
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5) People: Nuwber
Nuwber is a niche search engine that helps you find specific people, whether they’re an old friend who’s moved across the country or a potential candidate you’d like to do some business with. The site takes information from publicly available sources and lets you target potential matches using multiple criteria such as location, profession, and education.
In addition to making a database of detailed profiles about millions of people accessible for anyone to search through, real estate agents go on the site looking to find leads and new clients. With so many details on each profile, it is an excellent resource for professional networking and general Internet browsing.
6) Local Businesses: Yelp
When it comes to finding local businesses and services, nothing beats Yelp. The website offers an impressive amount of information about local restaurants and bars (including hours and prices) and reviews from other users that can help you decide whether or not a business is worth visiting.
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7) Travel Guidance: TripAdvisor
A great place to start your research, TripAdvisor is a search engine that allows you to type in any destination and see what people think of it. Great way to discover hidden gems near your destination.
TripAdvisor is one of the largest travel communities online, with a marketplace that includes over a billion reviews and tips from travelers. This is an excellent resource if you want to learn about recommended local attractions or need help finding hotels near your travel destinations.
8) Movies: Netflix
Netflix offers thousands of movies, documentaries, and TV shows on its streaming platform. The OTT streaming platform has over 221.6 million subscribers who can sort through Netflix's catalog via a comprehensive search feature that makes it easy to find a movie you want to watch, even if you don't know its title or cast.
Additionally, users can view what shows and movies are recommended by Netflix's staff and decide whether they're interested. Finally, users appreciate how easy it is to find something to watch via Netflix's search function.
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9) eBooks: Amazon
In a world where digital reading is becoming more and more popular, Amazon has quickly become one of the top search engines on Earth.
Amazon launched its e-book reader back in 2007, and since then, it has been regarded as one of the leading destinations to buy or read books. Over time, the company has added many useful features, like Goodreads integration or an e-book library that automatically gets saved whenever you buy a new book from its site.
On top of all that, it doesn't hurt that Amazon also allows you to purchase (or preorder) your favorite novels directly. So if you're looking for an effective search engine tailored explicitly towards finding good reads, give Amazon a try—you won't be disappointed.
10) Sports News: ESPN
ESPN (originally an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is a U.S.-based cable television network dedicated to broadcasting various sports-related programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Whether it’s professional wrestling or cricket, ESPN caters to fans of most major sports from around the world. In addition, it’s arguably one of the best websites out there if you want breaking news related to sports scores, rumours, rankings, and statistics.
With so much content at your fingertips, ESPN beats other sports news platforms by far. Their website is also well designed, making navigation easy and smooth.
Bonus Point: PhoneHistory
In case you are tired of receiving messages and calls from unknown numbers, try looking them up on PhoneHistory. This site will be also helpful if you'd like to check whether a phone number still belongs to a particular person.
Conclusion
Google has been the most popular search engine for many years, and it’s hard to argue its usefulness and reliability. However, there are some unique situations where you might want to use another search engine instead of Google.
Choosing a web search engine is not just a matter of convenience. The perfect search engine depends on what you’re looking for, and it can make your job or hobby much more effortless. So, if you need to do some shopping or want to look at vacation destinations, there are many great alternatives to try instead of Google.