Recently updated on November 17th, 2023 at 03:59 pm
People are no longer tethered to their desktops or laptops to access internet. The use of the internet from mobile phones and other portable devices is increasing day by day. The smart phones are constantly growing in popularity and the use of the net from mobile phones is also constantly increasing. Mostly users access the internet to search for something. Therefore search engines are of great importance.
The needs of smart phone users are different from the traditional desktop users. Successful mobile search engines need to understand and fulfil these needs. We will discuss some of the best mobile search engines.
1-Google:
Google is the leader even in mobile search engines. Google mobile is the lean version of standard Google. It is excellent at offering quick results. It has features such as voice search, Google Goggles, auto-complete and many more. Auto-complete suggests terms as you type. This reduces the search time by removing the need for unnecessary typing. You can search locally for maps, images, books, news and much more.
2-Yahoo:
Yahoo has also developed a mobile version of its search engine. It offers a unique approach to the way search results are displayed. If you are searching for local results, Yahoo shows a map with a link to directions and a Click-to-Call (CTC) button. Another interesting feature of Yahoo is that it offers the option to view mobile web-enabled sites or PC-enabled sites.
3-Bing:
Bing’s mobile search engine offers a nice and sleek look. Its special feature is Bing Vision. It allows you to recognise QR and bar codes, pictures, book covers and many more. It also displays the results that your friends of Facebook have liked. Another good feature of Bing is that it offers a faster access to maps, images, and videos.
4-Ask Mobile:
Ask mobile is a classic search engine of Ask Company. It is very unique search engine because you can type a question and get answers for your question. The unique thing is that the answers are responses of other users. It also allows you to choose from different search types with your phone touch numbers. For example 1=web search, 2=directions and 3=images.
5-MSN Mobile:
It is Microsoft’s mobile search engine. The special thing about this search engine is that it has a bigger interface than the other mobile search engines. The default MSN Mobile page shows MSN news, entertainment, weather, money information and sports information.
6-Clusty’s Mobile Search:
Clusty’s mobile search engine provides a wonderful user experience. The unique thing about Clusty is that it offers useful clustered search options. It shows the results from images, news, Wikipedia. It also shows the targeted web links.
7-ChaCha:
This application is free for the moment. It is available on iPhones and phones that have Android. Queries can be put forward as text or voice and the user gets a text response. It is quicker than other mobile search engines. But its drawback is that sometimes it takes too much time and provides only one result for the query.
8-Topsy:
Although it does not have an application, its website is nicely compatible with the mobile phones. The unique thing about Topsy is that it is based on social media websites. It shows the results on a timeline. The responses are based on the popular links that appear on social media websites.
Also Read: Common Mistakes in a Mobile Website Design
