Search engines, includingweb search engines,selection-based search engines,metasearch engines,desktop search tools, andweb portals andvertical market websites have a search facility foronline databases.
| Name | Language | Backend ownership |
|---|---|---|
| Ask.com | Multilingual | Google |
| Baidu | Chinese | Baidu |
| Brave Search | Multilingual | Brave |
| Dogpile | English | Metasearch engine |
| DuckDuckGo | Multilingual | Multiple |
| Ecosia | Multilingual | Google and Microsoft Bing |
| Elasticsearch | Multilingual | Elasticsearch |
| Exalead | Multilingual | Cloudview |
| Excite† | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing |
| Multilingual | Google | |
| HotBot | English | Microsoft Bing |
| Kagi | English | Metasearch engine and Kagi |
| Lycos | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing |
| MetaCrawler | English | Metasearch engine |
| Microsoft Bing | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing |
| Mojeek | Multilingual | Mojeek |
| Opensearch | Multilingual | Apache License 2.0 (Elasticsearch fork) |
| Petal | Multilingual | Huawei |
| Presearch | Multilingual | Presearch |
| Qwant | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing |
| SearXNG | Multilingual | Metasearch engine |
| Sogou | Multilingual | Tencent |
| Startpage | English | Google |
| Swisscows | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing |
| WebCrawler | English | Microsoft Bing |
| YaCy | Multilingual | GNUGPL-2.0-or-later |
| Yahoo! Search† | Multilingual | Microsoft Bing |
| Yandex | Multilingual | Yandex |
| Yep | English | Yep |
| Youdao† | Chinese | NetEase |
| You.com | English | Microsoft Bing |
| † Main website is a portal |
| Open source |
General:
Academic materials only:
Search engines dedicated to a specific kind of information
These search engines work across theBitTorrent protocol.
Desktop search engines listed on a light purple background are no longer in active development.
| Name | Platform | Remarks | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP Autonomy | Windows | IDOL Enterprise Desktop Search, HP Autonomy Universal Search.[5] | Proprietary, commercial |
| Beagle | Linux | Open-source desktop search tool for Linux based on Lucene. Unmaintained since 2009. | Mix ofX11/MIT,Apache |
| Copernic Desktop Search | Windows | Major desktop search program. The full trial version downgrades after the trial period automatically to the free version, which is (anno 2018) limited to indexing a maximum of 10.000 files. | Proprietary (30 day trial) |
| DocFetcher | Cross-platform | Open-source desktop search tool for Windows and Linux, based onApache Lucene | Eclipse Public |
| dtSearch Desktop | Windows | Proprietary (30 day trial) | |
| Everything | Windows | Find files and folders by name instantly on NTFS volumes | Freeware |
| Found | macOS | Searches for files stored locally, and the cloud and inbox and, is summoned with a double-tap of the ctrl key. Program now discontinued. | Free, proprietary |
| GNOME Storage | Linux | Open-source desktop search tool for Unix/Linux | GPL |
| Google Desktop | Linux,macOS,Windows | Integrates with main Google search engine page; discontinued by Google September 14, 2011 | Freeware |
| ISYS Search Software | Windows | ISYS:Desktop search software | Proprietary (14-day trial) |
| KRunner | Linux | ||
| Locate32 | Windows | Graphical port ofUnix's locate & updatedb | BSD[6] |
| Lookeen | Windows | Desktop search product with Outlook plugin and limited support for other formats via IFilters, uses Lucene search engine. | Proprietary (14-day trial)[7] |
| Nepomuk | Linux | Open-source semantic desktop search tool for Linux. Has been replaced byBaloo inKDE Applications from release 4.13 onward. | Mix of SA 3.0 and GNU Free Documentation v1.2 |
| Recoll | Linux,Unix,Windows,macOS | Open-source desktop search tool for Unix/Linux | GPL[8] |
| Spotlight | macOS | Found inApplemacOS "Tiger" and later OS X releases. | Proprietary |
| Strigi | Linux,Unix,Solaris,macOS,Windows | Cross-platform open-source desktop search engine. Unmaintained since 2011-06-02[9]. | LGPL v2[10] |
| Terrier Search Engine | Linux,macOS,Unix | Desktop search for Windows, Mac OS X Tiger, Unix/Linux. | Mozilla Public v1.1[11] |
| Tracker | Linux,Unix | Open-source desktop search tool for Unix/Linux | GPL v2[12] |
| Tropes Zoom | Windows | Semantic Search Engine (no longer available)[13] | Freeware and commercial |
| Unity Dash | Linux | Was part ofUbuntu Desktop | GPL v3,[14]LGPL v2.1[15] |
| Windows Search | Windows | Part ofWindows Vista and later OSs. Available asWindows Desktop Search forWindows XP andServer 2003. Does not support indexing UNC paths onx86-64 systems. | Proprietary |
| X1 Desktop Search | Windows | Major desktop search product along withCopernic Desktop Search | Proprietary (14-day trial)[16] |
| Wumpus | Cross platform | Desktop search focused on information retrieval research | GPL |
| Name | Language |
|---|---|
| Dogpile | English |
| Excite | English |
| Info.com | English |
| Kayak.com | Multilingual |
| Mamma.com | |
| MetaCrawler | English |
| MetaGer | Multilingual |
| Mobissimo | Multilingual |
| Otalo.com | English |
| Publisher's clearinghouse Search and Win | |
| Searx | Multilingual |
| SearXNG | Multilingual |
| Skyscanner | Multilingual |
| Wego.com | Multilingual |
| Name | Language |
|---|---|
| Seeks (open-source) | English |
| YaCy (free and fully decentralized) | Multilingual |
| Name | Description | Speciality |
|---|---|---|
| Evi | Specialises in knowledge base and semantic search | answer engine |
| Swoogle | Searching over 10,000 ontologies | Semantic web documents |
| Yebol | defunct | |
| Yummly | Semantic web search for food, cooking, and recipes | food related |
| Name | Backend ownership | Demise |
|---|---|---|
| iWon | Ask.com | Shut down afterAT&T merger[citation needed] |
| Teoma | Ask.com | Merged to Ask.com which still uses its algorithms |
| A9.com | Microsoft Bing | Redirect to Amazon homepage (parent company) |
| AOL | Google until 2015, thenMicrosoft Bing | Merged to Yahoo! |
| Alexa Internet | Microsoft Bing | Bought by Amazon in 1999, shut down in 2021 |
| Ciao! | Microsoft Bing | Shut down in 2018 |
| Ms. Dewey | Microsoft Bing | January 2009 |
| Groovle | Taken over by Google after Google sued for name similarity | |
| MySpace Search | Function taken over by Google in 2006 | |
| Mystery Seeker | Novelty "search"; went offline in 2017 | |
| Netscape | Now redirects to AOL | |
| Ripple | as of 2017 at the latest | |
| Ecocho | Google, thenYahoo! | |
| Forestle | Google, thenYahoo! | Redirected toEcosia in 2011 |
| Yippy | IBM Watson | Re-branded in 2023 as Togoda.com[17][18] |
| Grams | Grams (anonymous owner) | Closed in 2017 |
| Gigablast | English | Website went offline in 2023, as reported by Mojeek.[19] |