Top 10 Alternative Search Engines of 2008 by Charles Knight, via ReadWriteWeb (Dec 19)
Charles Knight, master of Altsearchengines, picked 10 new search engines. He notes - "As evidence of just how much the landscape is changing, three of our top 10 products require one-time downloads: once thought to be the kiss of death when Google sits in wait. But AltSearchEngines thinks that 2009 will be the tipping point when the rewards outweigh the "risks," at least for power users. For everyone else: 2010. Faroo, KallOut, and Surf Canyon (and, again, Tazti) are all well worth leaving your comfort zone for."
These are good picks. SearchMe and Viewzi are very interesting for visual search. I'm one who would rather not download - so that rules out Cooliris (3D environment for thumbing through visual sites -) for now, but SurfCanyon was irresistible.
"Surf Canyon is a browser extension that personalizes search engine results as you search! Available for download as an add-on for Firefox and Internet Explorer (IE6 and IE7), the software figures out what you want and then automatically recommends relevant search results."
Altsearchengines also has top ten lists for the following:
* Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2008
* Top 10 International Products of 2008
* Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2008
* Top 10 RSS and Syndication Products of 2008
* Top 10 Mobile Web Products of 2008
* Top 10 Enterprise Web Products of 2008
* Top 10 Real World Web Apps of 2008
* Top 10 Digital Lifestyle Products of 2008