As everyone who has ever read this blog knows, I'm a Google junkie. This, recently, has begun to disturb me. I mean the connotation of the word junkie is rather negative when you think about it; people who are always looking to get their fix etc. However, when I thought about the true meaning of the word junkie, negative connotation and all, I realized that's what I am, a Google Junkie. In light of my recent epiphany I have decided to try to kick the habit, or at least ween myself off of Google slowly, by doing some research into new (better perhaps?) search engines. The following list is the cream-of-the-crop of search engines sans Google.

1. Perhaps my favorite Google alternative of the moment is hakia (beta). Even though the engine is still in beta it does some things that Google doesn't, like (a) compliment you on your choice of search, (b) seems to recognize questions versus search operators, (c) it categorizes your searches and then gives you a table of contents so you can find what you're looking for easier. A search for golf shows produces an exceptional table of contents featuring Headlines, Rules of the Sport, Hall of Fame Players, and nine other categories for you to peruse.
   
2. My next favorite search engine in the game is probably exalead. You can customize your homepage with some of your favorite shortcuts (kind of the equivalent of Opera's speed dial). Not only is that a neat feature but any search (like golf for example) results page has a preview of the website right next to the url. Plus, in a right hand column, you can choose to narrow your search to different file extensions, media types, languages, search terms, site types, you name it, exalead's got it.
3. Number three on my list is like almost like number one, except with less features, Clusty - the clustering search engine. This search engine basically takes all of your results and breaks them into meaningful "clusters." This site, while not as amazing as the two other search engines still warrants a mention on this list.
4. Number four on this list is not an unknown in the wide world of search, most people have probably heard of it and have their own opinion on it, Snap. I think it has a lot of features that could be cool, if they were done right. For instance the webpage preview window on their site was done much better with exalead. Snap also has some features that are kind of annoying. For instance the suggestion drop down at the search box, who needs that? The only thing I use it for is if I can't spell what I'm searching for.
5. Finally a search engine that is kind of cheating from my Google cold-turkey resolution, Sputtr. Sputtr is a meta search that lets you search almost any (popular) search site you can think of all from the comfort of their stylish web 2.0 interface. Check it out, it's the bomb (people still do say bomb, right?).

Anyway, that’s my list of search engines I use besides Google. Although there should be an honorable mention for Dogpile.com just for the music search. If any of my readers have a fav search engine that wasn’t mentioned here, tell me about it in my yell box.

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