I’m pretty happy with conducting any and all searches on Google – it provides the tools, data and resources I need to do my job and find what I need for real life. It’s pretty much automatic to reach for Google first thing in the morning and last thing at night; however, it doesn’t hurt to check out alternative search engines once in a while to see if there’s possibly anything else of value out there. To that end, I searched (on Google) for new/unique/unfamiliar-to-me search engines and made some first impression observations.

Blackle (www.blackle.com):
This is basically Google wearing black – while being green. The premise is that it saves energy over a white background by reducing color settings and desktop graphics. It’s sleek and all, but if you click on a link, you’re no longer in Blackle, so what’s the big deal? Are the three seconds you spent doing a search going to make that much of a difference? B

Cuil (www.cuil.com):
I would say this one is really pleasant on the eyes and delivers some streamlined results. This is great for people who want to cut to the chase and find their information without repetition, sponsored links and clutter. You can just feel the editing that goes into generating the results. B+

Dipity (www.dipity.com):
This search engine, like TagGalaxy (below), is one where I can see getting caught up in the features and functions. It delivers your results in the form of a timeline and incorporates results from YouTube, Flickr and Digg. You also have the options of having your results appear in List, Flip Book and Map forms. While this is a great tool for anyone, I could see high school and college students really lapping it up. A

GooBingHoo (www.goobinghoo.com):
After you type in your keywords, the results from Google, Bing and Yahoo! appear together. The top third of each results page shows up and you can customize it to show them vertically or horizontally, making it a convenient way to see the difference in rankings. Visually, it’s annoying to me because when you scroll through one set of results, they all scroll. C

Instafound (www.instafound.com):
Their motto is “type a term and get taken to a site.” Well, they deliver on that, but if you’re impatient at all or are a visual learner, this won’t work. You have to wait for their choice of sites to load, and if it doesn’t work for you, you have to scroll to the next one and wait again. Plus, you’re inside frames, which I don’t like. There’s no picking and choosing, so you might as well use Google’s I’m Feeling Lucky feature which is faster and frameless. D

Quintura (www.quintura.com):
At first I found this one difficult to maneuver, but once I got the hang of it, I found it helpful for generating ideas and keywords. I still like Google’s Wonder Wheel better for this purpose, but it was fun to play around with keyword variations, which are prompted by a cloud of search topics that appear to the left of the results. B-

Soovle (www.soovle.com):
You type in your keyword and suggestions from Google, Bing, Amazon, Wikipedia, YouTube, Yahoo! and Anwers.com appear in a web around the search box. It’s a helpful tool for generating ideas as well as for search, but the layout could be a bit more polished. C

Sputtr (www.sputtr.com):
This one is very simple and meant for mobile devices. You type in your keywords and select from a drop-down menu the search engine you wish to use. It’s basically what you may already have on your browser’s toolbar, with the addition of YouTube, Flickr, Amazon, Ebay and Wikipedia. B

TagGalaxy (www.taggalaxy.com):
Two thumps up! This is a picture search engine that has an amazing and fascinating design interface. Put in your keyword and it will quickly deliver whatever it has scraped from the Web on animated, orbiting, 3-D planets. The additional ideas it generates are quite impressive. I heartily recommend this one – try searching with “Spain” and see all the possibilities! A

Viewzi (www.viewzi.com)
When it comes to explaining how much I love this unique search engine, I’m speechless. It has every format for results at your fingertips – timelines, web snapshots, tag clouds, photo clouds, news articles, power grid…you just select your preference from a view menu. The results are from Google, so you’re guaranteed relevance and everything comes up lightning fast. This is the only alternate search engine I’ve added to my browser’s toolbar. A+

Yoowalk (www.yoowalk.com):
This one is like a video game, actually. You search the web in the form of a customizable avatar that strolls through and among 3D representations of websites and categories. There’s a social component, as you can interact with other users and submit favorite sites. It’s interesting, but you probably won’t get much accomplished. Plus, it crashed my browser almost immediately. B-

Zhift (www.zhift.com):
This search engine concentrates on the forum niche. You can also elect to search for PDF docs and Forum DoFollows. I don’t think I’ll get much use out of this engine, though. I tried two separate and unrelated searches and the results for both were far from relevant. Despite having launched and re-launched a bunch of times, maybe they haven’t quite gotten it right. C-

There are scores of other alternative search engines to explore, but I think I’ll stick with Google for my basic daily requirements and play around with some of these new discoveries when I’m looking for visual or cerebral inspiration. What do you think of these sites? Have you found any other interesting ones?