There are a number of different search engines on the internet today. While the most popular engines are Yahoo and Google, search engines like Nexplore and Alexa are quickly gaining ground. Luckily for the consumer, most search engines offer the same components. However, each search engine does have its own perks and benefits. It simply depends on what you need most from a search engine as to which one you should use. Some people actually use a couple different engines depending on what they are looking for. Let's take a look at the different search engines and what each offers.

The main page of the Google search engine is pretty simple. It offers a clean look that is very user friendly. You can choose to enter a term and receive a list of results, or choose “I'm Feeling Lucky” to go directly to a site related to your search term. You can also choose whether you want to search the entire web or if you want to look in a particular category like photos, maps, news, or even blogs. This is a great feature, for example, if you are particularly looking for a photo of a cat rather than information about cats. If you choose to search for a term, on the web and receive a list of sites, you will see a search engines results page show up. This page will tell you how many sites there are on the internet that use the term you searched for. You will also see that the page is divided into two sections. The left side of the page is called organic search results and the right side is paid search results. Organic results are the ones that Google lists as relevant for your keyword, while paid results are companies that paid to be listed on the page.

The home page for Yahoo is built as a regular web page. However, it provides links down the left side of the page rather than other Yahoo pages. You can use the home page to find games, look for a job, or even search for a new home. There is also a box in the upper right hand side of the screen to access your Yahoo services, like mail, messenger, and events calendar. At the top of the page, you can enter search terms and specify by web, photos, or even videos, just like Google. The search results page looks the same as well. You can choose from organic results or paid results. You will also find there are suggestions for search terms similar to the ones you entered. If you entered a general term, you will find more specific search terms to choose from.

Nexplore

The Nexplore search engine is very similar to both Yahoo and Google. You can specify your search down to pictures, blogs, or even podcasts. When you search a term, you will find there are three spaces for search results. There will be sponsored search results at the top of the page and down the right hand side. These are the paid results, and then on the left side, under the first few sponsored results, are the organic results. One feature this search engine does have that other two don't is the ability to customize your results. You can view your results with a description and the url or customize the view to show a picture of the website or just a list of urls. These can be great if you prefer pictures or a longer list of results on each page.

As you can see, most search engines offer the same features with just a few variances. However, you will see that the first result for a keyword is not always the same with each engine. Each search engine ranks the websites in their own way.