Google's new unified privacy policy has caused concern for many users, with the combination of data from different Google services giving the company a much more detailed -- and some would say intrusive -- profile of individual users.
If this bothers you, there are other options available. Google may have become the defacto verb for searching the web, but it's not the only way to find information online. Here are five alternative search engines that are worth checking out.
5 of the best Google alternatives – Bing
bing.com
Microsoft's rival to Google has been running since 2009, but has never quite achieved the same level of popularity. This year that could change as Bing starts powering Yahoo! Search.
The biggest appeal of Bing is the rather lovely daily image: hover over it to see related facts and search results. Like Google, Bing provides instant answers on subjects including maths, flights and sports. Bing does store some personal data, but much less than Google.
5 of the best Google alternatives – Siri
apple.com
Apple's voice-powered search engine is great for finding out the weather or checking something when out and about.
On the downside, it's only available to owners of the iPhone 4S (and, hopefully, the iPad 3). Plus, Siri uses Google to do its searching. But as you are hunting without being logged in to Google, your information won't be collected. Not the best solution, but a great on-the-go one.
5 of the best Google alternatives – Wolfram Alpha
wolframalpha.com
Wolfram Alpha isn't a search engine. It's a computation engine. Ask it for facts, scientific formulae, equation answers or any kind of statistics and you will receive quick, accurate results. Ask it a deep philosophical question and it might be stumped (although it does know that the meaning of life is 42).
Not a complete Google replacement but an absolute winner if you need facts. The only data they collect is not personally identifiable, unless you voluntarily give it to them.
5 of the best Google alternatives – Duck Duck Go
duckduckgo.com
Duck Duck Go is the indie answer to Google. It doesn't collect or share any personal information – so if you are really concerned about protecting your data online this is your solution. If you need a higher level of privacy, Duck Duck Go even offers an anonymous searching option through Tor.
The layout of the website is nice and clean, with virtually no adverts. Google Chrome users can also add a Duck Duck Go voice search extension.
5 of the best Google alternatives – Dogpile
dogpile.com
Dogpile collates results from search engines such as Google and Bing, so it lets you search Google without the associated privacy concerns. It also has a nifty feature called IntelliFind that adds additional content it thinks you will like.
Dogpile's privacy policy is pretty similar to Wolfram Alpha's: it does store data, but it's anonymous unless you knowingly provide it.
