mrpbps's posterous

Google has been the leading search engine for as long as I can remember. Launched as a small beta start up in 1996 at the domain google.stanford.edu using inexpensive hardware, you wouldn’t think then that it would ever become the success it is today with so few useful Google alternatives available.

In fact, in 1998 when it first went live on the official Google.com domain, the beta was publically labeled by its creators as a “might-work-some-of-the-time-prototype”.

If only for the short lesson in the history of the idea that has become the burgeoning Google empire this is a really interesting read. By exemplifying the "Top 5" alternatives to Google the article highlights the many reasons why relying on only one strategy/source is usually not the best option. Any search strategy is only as good as the assumptions underlying the algorithm or formula that underpins how it works.

As always there are lots of other suggestions and links in the Comments that are appended to the article.