Search engines are something that some people get very personal about. We do tend to like a particular one and stick with it. Each does seem to have its own personality and works in a slightly different way, which can be what appeals to some and not to others.

Google

Google tends to be the search engine that is the most popular. Web developers tend to want their websites to come top of Google and then they are happy that it will be seen by a lot of viewers. Google appeals to people because it is fast and has relevant search results. It also sometimes has an interesting picture on its logo which some people find attractive. You can personalise it as well if you want to. Although Google has other products, its search engine is its most successful. As well as the main search engine you can search for images, maps, news, books and other more specific categories.

Yahoo

Yahoo was developed by students in 1994 and in 2000 it started using Google to get its search results. But by 2004 was using its own system, although it is likely to soon become powered by Bing. Yahoo provides a lot of other successful services such as email and messaging services and so many people have brand loyalty and use the search engine as well. The search engine is very popular but comes second to Google. It is an older site than Google and probably benefits form some brand loyalty.

Bing

Bing is the new name for Microsoft's search engine which has been formerly called MSN search and Windows Live Search. It was launched in 2009. It has some features which attract people to use it over the other search engines. These include a background picture which changes daily, a left hand navigation pane with a right hand preview pane and sublinks of pages included in the search results. It also has a facility where it can provide instant answers to certain things like sports scores, stock prices, maths, dictionary and spell checking as well as other things.

Ask

This search engine was known as Ask Jeeves and featured a picture of a butler, who was supposed to be looking for the information you needed. He was based on the character of Jeeves from the 'Jeeves and Wooster' characters by P.G. Wodehouse. It was set up differently to other search engines in that searchers were expected to put there requirement in a question format rather than just typing in a few keywords, although either would still generate search results.

AltaVista

This search engine was once one of the most popular ones but once Google launches it soon took over as the most used. Alta Vista is owned by Yahoo but is going to be discontinued by its owner Yahoo. It was developed when the company was trying to find a good way to find files on their network and was launched in 1995. It was better than other options available at the time because the crawler was very fast and the search efficient. It was actually the first full database of a massive chunk of the Internet which is why it was so popular.