Here at AllMyFaves we do rather love putting together top 10 lists for you. This time we’re covering the top 10 alternative search engines and reference sites 2012. So if you’re bored of using the typical mainstream search engines like Google, these search and reference websites offer interesting, new ways to search for whatever you’re looking for!

The Best Search Engines & Reference Websites

 

1. The Search Engine That DOESN’T Track You

DuckDuckGo –  First up is a useful alternative search engine that doesn’t track your activity. Unlike Google and other popular search engines, DuckDuckGo protects your privacy by never finding out who you are, so you can freely search whatever you want. No more worrying about being monitored while searching for… sensitive things! Would you leave Google for the sake of your privacy?

Check out the private search engine: DuckDuckGo

 

2. The Talking Wikipedia

Qwiki – Something a bit different to your usual Wikipedia searching is Qwiki – an alternative Wikipedia-style search engine literally speaks to you!  Search any topic (your hometown or fave actor works well), and the Qwiki talks about the topic while displaying pictures. It’s certainly intriguing; like being taught new information by a robot! So if your tired of always reading about a topic head to Qwiki and they’ll read to you.

Check out the talking, information search engine: Qwiki

 

3. The Search Engine for Questions & Answers

Quora – You know how you often end up asking Google questions (“Who am I?” anyone?!)… Well Quora is basically a search engine just for asking questions and getting the answers! Literally any question you have probably has an answer on Quora, and if it doesn’t yet, simply ask it, and wait to see who answers. The best answers get voted up and become more visible too, so it’s a great way to learn new information.

Check out the Q&A search engine for information: Quora

4. The Search Engine for Apps

Chomp – So if you’re an iPhone or iPad user, you’ve probably wondered what the best way to find the best apps are. We review hot, new apps every week, although we’re not a search engine for apps. Google doesn’t do anything specific for apps. The App Store is kinda limited. That leaves you with Chomp – a Google-style search engine, just for apps!

Check out the Google-like apps search engine: Chomp

5. The Search Engine for Internet Education

Grovo – You may use your Google, your Bing etc to search for websites you’re looking for, but what happens once you get to the site and don’t know how to use it! Grovo is a growing library of short, educational videos about how to use and get the best out of the Internet’s most popular websites. You could call it an alternative search engine for Internet education videos really, because in practice that’s what it is. And it’s brilliant too if you’re not sure what you’re doing on the web – you’ll be an expert in no time!

Check out the search engine for website education videos: Grovo

 

6. The Computer That Knows All The Answers

Wolfram Alpha – Normal search engines like Google bring up a list of links to pages from around the web that relate to your search terms. Wolfram Alpha is a “computational knowledge engine”: it uses built-in knowledge curated by human experts to compute on the fly a specific answer and analysis for every query. So in other words, Wolfram Alpha is a massive – and growing – super computer that actually has all the answers to your questions ready!

Check out the super computer of the future that already knows more than most experts: Wolfram Alpha

 

7. The Social Search Engine

SoCl – Straight out of the Microsoft research center comes SoCl – the World’s first ‘Social Search Engine’. It’s similar to regular search engines like Google, but shortens your path to relevant search results by creating a feed of results both from Bing’s search engine and other users, like you, who searched the same keyword. You can see the action these people took after receiving the same search results and how they continued from there. You can also comment and tag posts like Facebook. Could this – a combination of the abilities of Google and Facebook – be Microsoft’s next great invention?

Check out the first social search engine: SoCl

8. The Ultimate How-To ‘Videopedia‘

5min: Another video hub, but this time it’s a massive, searchable library of how-to videos. So instead of doing a how-to search on Google, you can use 5min’s internal search engine ready to bring you tens of thousands of how-to videos across a huge array of topics. It’s got everything from ‘how to play guitar’ to ‘how to invest money’ videos, and of course loads of instructional DIY videos too. All you need is 5min!

Check out the instructional videopedia: 5min

 

9. The Search Engine for Music & Lyrics

LyricsnMusic – This alternative search engine is just the perfect site to accompany your music listening. Do a search for any song or artist and it brings up results (separated by tabs) for Youtube videos, lyrics, artists’ concert dates, Wikipedia info, sheet music and guitar tabs. So in other words, it’s a genuinely useful music & lyrics search engine. And it looks great too.

Check out the musical search engine: LyricsnMusic

10. The Web’s Most Popular Homepage: No Search Required!

AllMyFaves –  Built on the idea that you shouldn’t have to search for the best websites – and that Google doesn’t always give you the best websites – AllMyFaves is a human-curated, hand-picked, visual directory of the best websites. Among the most used homepages on the Internet, it’s all about discovering more, without even having to use a search engine! 

You can import all of your bookmarks into the AllMyFaves homepage, and alongside curated collections of interesting websites for different interests, take them everywhere, on any device.

Check out the Website Discovery Engine: All My Faves