Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

According to comScore’s most recent desktop search engine rankings, “Google Sites led the explicit core search market in February with 64 percent of search queries conducted.” In an overall sense, this proves one thing to be true: Google has captured the majority of search traffic.

However, you don’t want to ignore the other 36 percent. Here is a breakdown of the search engines that make up the “best of the rest.”

• Microsoft sites: 21.4 percent
• Yahoo sites: 12.2 percent
• Ask Network: 1.6 percent
• AOL: 0.9 percent.

These numbers are nowhere as extensive as Google’s, but it does show that people are using other search engines....

As concerns over the de facto monopoly status of Google continue to grow, I'm reminded of the great philosopher Herman Cain and his infamous line "blame yourself". As long as "Google" is a generic phrase for Internet search, their dominant position is assured. That said, you can do something about it.

There are plenty of Google alternatives and many of these players offer a better search experience, depending on your needs. Here are 12 alternatives to escape your reliance on Google for all things search....