Whenever we think of search engines, only one name comes to mind, and that is Google. That is why Google is the top search engine in the world. Even if we talk about top search engines in India, Google comes in number one place.
As Google does not display the best results for certain types of queries, special purpose search engines have come into the picture.
So, people are using these search engines for special needs. Let us discuss various types of popular search engines in India in this post.
Crawler Based Search Engines in India
A crawler is a software designed to crawl like a spider. It regularly crawls the web and updates its database of web pages.
The search engines that use this technology to update and index their databases are called crawler based search engines.
Such search engines have all types of web pages in their databases. So, when you search for any type of query you get reasonably good results.
For example, you may use them for the following types of searches (and whatever else that comes to your mind):
- Which country has the largest area?
- Who was the first president of the United States of America?
- Which are the top ten bloggers in the world?
- Blog submission sites
- The current temperature of Delhi
- How to prepare tea?
- Which are the best mutual funds in India?
Such queries belong to altogether different types of categories. Still, you get good search results.
So, I will first talk about crawler based five top search engines in India and their ranking as per the June 2021 stats. (Source is Global Stats.)
1. Google Search – (market share 98.93%)
The Indian version of the Google search engine is Google.co.in. It is leading the Indian market on all platforms, like desktop, tablet, and mobile.
You can search either by typing a keyword or by voice. This is a unique feature that Google search supports.
When you start typing, Google starts suggesting relevant and popular search queries. For example, I typed how to reach and at the same time, Google suggested seven keywords in the drop-down menu.
This feature is called autocomplete and helps a user type correct spelling or select the correct keyword.
Google gives many search options. They include the search for video, image, news, maps, books, etc.
It prefers fresh content and quality content. So, fresh quality content always has a good chance of ranking high in the search results.
Google gives value to backlinks and ranks a web page with more links.
In the search results, Google shows ten results per page. But you can set this number up to 100.
Google has become smarter and understands the intent of a search query. That is why it displays relevant and accurate results.
2. Bing Search – (market share 0.73%)
Microsoft owns Bing’s search engine. It is the second leading search engine in India.
A large number of computers in India use MS Windows OS. They have the Bing search engine in the default Edge browser.
Bing provides more autocomplete suggestions than Google in most cases. Also, its video search is far better than Google’s video search.
But Google scores higher than Bing in terms of voice search.
Like Google, Bing also gives value to backlinks.
Google prefers fresh content while Bing prefers old quality content from high authority sites.
In all, Bing is a good search engine and we should use it frequently.
3. Yahoo! Search – (market share 0.26%)
It is a web search engine. Moreover, it is owned by US-based firm Yahoo.
One study shows that Yahoo delivers slightly more relevant results than Google.
Yahoo prefers the old content of high authority sites, while Google prefers fresh content.
There are certain things that even Google cannot do for you, but Yahoo! search can. If interested to know, visit labnol.org.
4. DuckDuckGo – (market share 0.05%)
A US-based firm owns this web search engine.
DuckDuckGo says it doesn’t track its users. In other words, it doesn’t collect or share user information.
Moreover, it displays the same results to all users for a particular query. Other search engines, namely Google and Bing give you personalized search results.
5. Yandex – (market share 0.01%)
A Russian company Yandex owns this search engine. Although it gets maximum traffic in Russia, it receives some traffic from India also.
It gives geo-dependent results, which means people from different cities will see different results for the same query.
Yandex does not give much value to backlinks; instead, it values user experience. Moreover, if you optimize a site for Yandex, the results take more time than Google.
Also, Yandex offers the option to use a virtual keyboard that protects you from spyware.
All of the above search engines are quite popular internationally. And you must have used them on some occasions. Now let’s move on to other types of search engines we use.
Special purpose Indian search engines
1. Justdial – Indian search engine
Vss Mani founded this search engine in 1996. Justdial or JD provides a local search for various services in India.
You can use its service online or over the phone. JD mobile app is available for Android and iOS phones.
JD has provided a phone number for the pan India service. And it is – 8888888888
If you dial this number, a human coordinator quickly picks up the phone. And he asks what your query is. Suppose you want to buy a laptop, then he will send SMS laptop dealers’ details for your location within no time.
Soon, you will start receiving phone calls from the dealers about the laptop query.
You have to use this service to believe how fast and accurate it is.
JD has a database where thousands of product vendors and service providers are listed. So, any related query will fetch quick and accurate results.
On the other hand, if you type a query such as blog submission sites, JD will give the wrong results. It is because the query is not related to the vendors or businesses listed with JD.
It is free to list your business on the JD site.
JD has made a few changes to its website and now it offers a shopping experience too. Here, you can buy various types of products, like mobile, computer, electronics items, etc.
You can avail of various other kinds of services also, such as apply for loans, book a banquet hall, pay bills and recharge your prepaid mobiles, etc.
The top competitor of JD is sulekha.com.
(Reference – Justdial wiki)
2. Amazon.in
Amazon India is a search engine for online shopping and ranks one in its category. It is built to help small and medium-sized businesses reach millions of customers online and grow their revenue.
Humans compile the database of Amazon, where millions of products are listed. When a user searches for any product, results are fetched from its database. These results are fast and accurate.
Google cannot produce such results.
You can use any platform for your search, namely computer, tablet, or mobile. The mobile app is available for both Android and iOS phones.
There are over 40 categories where you can search your items. For example, you can search for baby products, women’s wear, mobile phones, and more.
The search result can be displayed in order of average customer review, price low to high, price high to the low or newest arrival.
For your shopping needs, it scores much higher over Google and other similar search engines.
Other popular Indian search engines for shopping are Flipkart, Indiamart, and Snapdeal.
3. Naukri.com
It is the most popular Indian search engine for finding jobs. The site was founded in 1997. Over 50 million job seekers are registered with this site. In addition, over fifty thousand corporate customers are seeking its services for job posting.
A job seeker can search for jobs from vast categories, such as banking, BPO, engineering services, construction, etc.
Humans compile naukri.com’s database. It is not populated by any web crawler software.
So, when you enter a search query, results are immediately displayed from the vast and indexed database of naukri.com.
The job service is free for job seekers, whereas business houses have to pay for job postings. If you load a resume on this site, its algorithm will notify you whenever there is a relevant job listing.
This site publishes blog posts on interview advice, career advice, resume tips, etc. Also, it provides tools like salary trends, career navigator, talent migration, etc.
The search results can display Indian jobs besides MNC jobs as naukri.com has all kinds of clients ranging from small business houses to large enterprises.
This website helps all types of job seekers from peon to IIT / IIM educated ones.
There are other job search engines available in India like monster, indeed, shine, etc.
4. Magicbricks – Indian search engine for property
It is an Indian search engine for the property niche. And it was founded by the Times of India group in 2006. It facilitates the search and trade of a real estate property.
Users can search for any kind of residential property like a flat, house, plot, etc. Also, they can search for commercial properties like office space, shops, showrooms, etc.
Hundreds of thousands of real estate properties are listed in the database of Magicbricks. So, whenever a user searches for a property, he gets several options in the search result.
This site enables its users to search and buy, rent, or sell a property as per their budgets, preferred location, etc. In addition, a user can list his properties for free.
You can even search for property as per the travel time between two locations. If you don’t know the exact location where you want to search for a property, you have the option of search by map. Also, you can search by property ID.
Magicbricks service is available on computers as well as on mobiles. Its mobile app can be installed on Android and iPhone phones.
This site provides resources like Buying Guide and Investment Hotspots. In addition, it provides tools like property worth, rates & trends, smart search, etc.
You can also receive advice on the phone.
In all, this site is worth using as a property search engine and property guide.
You may consider some other alternative to this site, such as 99acres, Makaan, Housing, etc.
5. Swiggy
Swiggy is India’s largest search engine for food and restaurants. It is based in Bangalore. And it was founded in 2014.
You can search for any kind of dish or restaurant in your locality or anywhere in India. It has thousands of restaurants listed in its database from where this search engine fetches the results.
The entire database is compiled by humans and not by any web crawler.
All the famous cities in India like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, etc. are using its services.
The main USP of this site is that there is no lower limit of the amount for ordering any food. But you will have to bear the delivery charges.
For example, if you order one plate chhole kulche for Rs 40, then delivery charges will be Rs 35, and restaurant charges (tax) will be Rs 2. So total charges will be Rs 77.
The search results can be sorted based of delivery time, rating or cost.
You can access Swiggy’s service through its website or using its mobile app that is available for Android and iOS.
Each day some discount offers are available for customers. Few banks offer a discount if you use their debit or credit cards for a certain amount of purchase.
Also, some restaurants run discount offers or schemes on specific days of the week.
One equally popular alternate of Swiggy is Zomato. But it is a US-based firm while Swiggy purely belongs to India.
Winding up on Search Engines in India
As you can see above, we discussed top crawler based search engines in India as well as special purpose Indian search engines.
I am sure you would be using Google or Bing for a general query daily. But it is better to use a special purpose search engine for a query.
In the end, I would say I have presented many options for search engines in India. Now it is up to you to choose the right one for you.
