The brand Google has become so much synonymous with "Web search" that Merriam Webster Dictionary decided to include google as a verb meaning "to use the Google search engine to retrieve information on the Internet."
But is there life beyond Google? Probably yes. Search engines like Yahoo, Ask.com and Windows Live (formerly MSN Search) are continuously improving and it may not always be the best decision to ignore them in favor of Google.
A lot of us find it very impractical to run the same “search query” on different search engines – so many open browser windows, so many common search results – that’s where Meta-search engines like Dogpile and AfterVote help.
Meta Search engines will search multiple web search engines for your queries and then present the combined search results in one place.
For example Dogpile, one of most popular meta search engine from InfoSpace, aggregates search results from Google, Yahoo!, Live Search, Ask.com, LookSmart and more.
AfterVote is relatively a new player in the “meta search” game but is far more impressive and useful. Unlike Dogpile which just combines the results from different search engines, AfterVote shows additional information and gives you lot of control over search results (you can even sort them).
For each search result, you get to know the Google PageRank, Alexa Rank and StubleUpon Reviews without leaving the results page. This gives you a good idea about the credibility and popularity of the destination site before you actually make a visi. And if you don’t like some results, AfterVote will let you block that web page or the entire domain.
Meta Search engines aren’t just limited to web pages – you can even use them for Images and Videos. For instance, uLinkx lets you search videos from different video sharing siteslike Google Video, MySpace, YouTube, Reuters, MetaCafe and more. Similarly, Schmedley Search help you search images from various image search engines in one place.
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