An interesting question... Not sure what the original was, as the editing process sometimes removes part of the original gist of the question... Anyways, here we go: I think Google is still the best, due to its overall speed, accuracy and pretty much unique method of sorting pages. That said, its methods have become a little less accurate due to the (rather annoying) process of TrackBack links on Moveable Type-powered blogs and people who set up sites just filled with bunches of links to try and promote their site to a higher rank in a Google results page. However, that to me constitutes abuse of a server, and I know Google are getting round to fixing the problem. Aside from that, you always have you usual suspects... Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite... Then there's a fairly new upstart called A9. It's run by Amazon.com, and it's another fairly interesting approach - consolidated information and past searches history upon return. This is based on a consolidated (I like that word today) login system, which in turn is based on your Amazon.co.uk (or .com or .fr or whatever) login name, so it's not just based on anonymous cookies on your PC - which would be useful if you were travelling or using another PC other than your usual machine. What the A9.com page has to say about the way it searches and the results it provides: "A9.com provides several sources of information with a customized multi-column interface. The list of available sources appears as buttons on the right side of the search results page. Clicking on any button opens a new column on the same page (clicking the button again will close that column). You can adjust the size of the columns by dragging the borders to the left or right [learn more]. The arrangement of open columns and their relative sizes is automatically kept for the next search. The current list of searches (and their sources) includes: The web (Google) Search Inside the Book® (Amazon.com) Images (Google) Movies (Internet Movie Database) Reference (definitions, encyclopedic entries and other topics by GuruNet) Learn more about the search features on A9.com In addition to these sources, your personal history, diary, and bookmarks will also be searched automatically, as described below.< Another search engine-type system that might interest you is the new(ish) BlinkX.com - the way that this system approaches data is very clever, as you download a small programme to your machine which then unifies all of your data - local data, web data, all sorts... I'd check it out for yourself to see just how powerful it is. The web site says about this: "blinkx (www.blinkx.com) is a new company with a new vision: to redefine the way people find and use information on the internet and their own computer. Free-to-download, blinkx is able to understand and link to relevant information anywhere and in any format: on the web, in the news or on the desktop - automatically, accurately and quickly. blinkx automatically links information from files on your hard disk, and can suggest content from news sites, the internet, video and blogs. It is not designed to replace current search engines like Google or Yahoo, but is a completely new way to use information on the internet. Founded in 2003, by technology veterans Kathy Rittweger and Suranga Chandratillake, it is a privately held firm based in London and San Francisco." So, as you can see, whilst Google still remains #1 for me based on overall ease of use, there's more than one alternative that I'm sure will make their face known in the coming months and years.

Google or search.com. since they are more or less the same, and great for homepages as they load quickly when you boot up the internet. (by the way the google toolbar is great!)

Please consider this as a small addition to the other fine answers. EDIT 10/9/05: To Snowflake - I'm sorry you couldn't find what you were looking for. I would be glad to help you try & find whatever you're looking for, unless it's personal and you'd feel uncomfortable with telling a total stranger. Otherwise, the offer's open. Maybe you'll find the next one helpful, I found another search engine that's way, way cool. I'm not sure what else to call it, besides its name: http://clusty.com. Got there through a link on maddock's homepage, I think. It's a portal and an engine and is customizable. Looks a lot like Google, but it's leaner, meaner, & returns results in clusters. NOT 800,000 hits, thank You God. I ran some tough queries on it and got some dandy results. Thanks to maddock for the linkage. I will be using Clusty for sure. The search engine "www.searchthingy.com" calls itself the "mother of all search engines" and uses the SEs listed below to run queries. You only need to type your terms into one dialogue box, one time. Check which of the ten (any or all) you want to do the searching. When all is said and done, your results come back via an open window of the results page of each search engine you used. 1)Google 2)all the web 3)Yahoo 4)hotbot 5)About 6)Excite 7)i won 8)Microsoft MSN 9)Complete Planet 10)Alta Vista Searchthingy is highly useful for finding obscure information, or anytime you need a wide range of results. Of course, you'll see a few repetitive hits, but amazingly, some SEs return the names of sites or webpages that Google doesn't. Actually,it's probably more the case that Google's found those as well, but, but unless you get to the results on page 4,832, forget it. Complete Planet (#9 above) is a database search engine, but it looks like much more than that. It appears to have a wealth of information at its cyberfingertips, and reports accessibility to 70,000 searchable datbases and specialty search engines. I've never gotten a hit, but suspect that's more a reflection on the deep intellectual level of my queries than Complete Planet's capabilities. You get the feeling that if Complete Planet and Google were brothers, Google would be the very smart, very likable, down-to-earth, good-looking hunk, while Complete Planet and his alter ego, Bright Planet, would be the extremely intelligent, quiet yet personable, refined and discerning, good-looking hunk of an older brother who, rumor has it, is employed at the NSA and knows everything. Happy searching!

My personal preference for a search engine is www.google.ca. But nobodys answer can tell you what search engine to pick. Really if you want to have a good search engine for finding stuff quick, you should dedicate some of your time to see what each site has to offer.

google!!!!!!!

For my money, Google. I seem to find everything I need.

I go with Google first. If I can't find it there, I will try another search engine.

Google. Then Yahoo.

This isn't a search engine. The answer to that has been taken a few times already. But by far the best search "utility" I have ever used for research has been Vivisimo.com or "clusty" reccomended to me by a librarian. It gives you all the Google, Alta Vista, Msn, etc., categorizes them, and eliminates a lot of the duplicates. Google has improved so much though, that it's a toss-up now.

Google, just like the others say.

Google

I think Google is sufficient for most needs and i feel it is connected to the most sites and hence the most likely to find what i want.

Google seems to have their act together, and they own so many of the smaller search engines, that they give very complete search results.

yahoo

Yahoo! ..google second best

google baby

Google, all the way

Google because thats the first search enginge i was taught to use, its so clear and easy and simple...and wonderful......and other search engines like yahoo don't edit their logo name things with pretty pictures everyday :)Yay for google

It's a tossup between Google and DogPile for me.

I mostly use google, but ask sometimes turns up good image results, so I use ask sometimes as well.

Google

google's always reliable occasionally ask.com in some cases it depends wat i'm looking for

Definantly google. It was the first and only search engin I ever used. It's so simple, dependable, and can turn up 601,000,000 results in 0.1 seconds. And on holidays it changes it's logo!

Great Googley Moogley. ... I like Google... Not only because I find what I'm looking for 99.99% of the time, but also because of all the tricks you can do with it: http://www.usrbingeek.com/a/000488.php (there's tons more). Its pretty much a one-stop shop for whatever you need.

The original: Google.

google, not exactly why

Google. People don't know half the stuff it can do. I've read a 300 page book on the secrets of Google: "Google Hacks."

Google.

Ask.com (especialy for detailed searces)

Google without a doubt. Ask.com is more subjected for certain research, but Google.com essentially has it all.

Yes googles good but chacha.com has got it all

Google rules!

google is top bananas

Google it

Google in my opinion. Maybe this will help http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/10645

GOOGLE!!!!!!!

I get the best results on Google.

I like Google.

Google

Google!

&quot;Voogle"

There's a new plug-in for the firefox browser that makes searching simple no matter what search engine you like to use. Check out the 90 second demo here: http://www.visual-search.net/Visual%20Search%202/Visual%20Search%202.html get the Firefox plug-in here: http://www.visual-search.net People seem to really love this one!

No contest, -google-

Google. The best there is.

my vote is like most others Google all the way

hmm

There's a new plug-in for the firefox browser that makes searching simple no matter what search engine you like to use. Check out the 90 second demo here: http://www.visual-search.net/Visual%20Search%202/Visual%20Search%202.html get the Firefox plug-in here: http://www.visual-search.net People seem to really love this one!

Google.

Google.

I prefer Google and Ask.com Ask.com is great if you like to search in the form of a question. Google pretty much does everything else.

Google.

Google

I like dogpile.com because it uses Google,Yahoo Search,Microsoft Live Search and Ask all in one.

google at the moment until they start advertising on their pages when you type your search in ads relating to that will invade the page bad idea google then I will use something else

GOOGLE!

yahoo works good for searching for images. google works good for searching for data.

alltheweb.com

google

Google.

I like Winzy and Blingo because you can get prizes when you search. I have won many times on Winzy but never on Blingo. The search engines used are google, yahoo, ask, and windows live so you get all of the big ones. Here are invitation links to the sites (you win whatever i win if you sign up through the invitation. if you dont want to, then just go to winzy.com and blingo.com) Blingo Invitation: http://www.blingo.com/friends?ref=5wLsBQQE7K5L2kGdv3ZE660rgTc Winzy Invitation: http://www.winzy.com/ca1e8 Hope this helps.

Google 4 me!

Google!

Definitely Google..:)

I use Yahoo but it looks like I am out-voted by Google.

I refer google search engine, there's no hassel, it gives a lots of url's to meet the needs of the internet surfers, it never loose you going to the right track, but just feel free to ask questions in the forums to this site, professional SEO are waiting for you to answer your questions. visit: http://www.outsourceit2philippines.com

google first yahoo second

The Green Search Engine, the search engine to help save the earth, endorsed by the Sierra Club. http://www.greenmaven.com/environment/3331-sierra-club-radio/view-details.html