The Top Three Search Engines Online Today
The Game
The game search engines play is a very delicate one. They want to filter the ever growing pile of internet information to exactly what you want to find. You don't want the skinny on pokemon as you look for how to grow a rose bed. This is their goal. To provide the best service. As the wealth of knowledge and shall we say 'other stuff' on the internet grows but the utility of most of it is questionable. You want the correct information now. They design special algorithms for this purpose. You will use the engine that benefits you the most and that is what they strive for. However some engines got left out of this due to over advertising or selling too many results that are NOT what you are looking for.
The Original
Google was one of the first to show up on the scene from the Netscape days of having to know the URL of a website to get to it. As websites multiplied a lot of waste began to clutter the internet. Google has always been in the lead of creating an effective crawler and filter algorithms to keep the unwanted off your screen and the helpful up front. Google has a simple monetization scheme. You see boxes just like adsense, on the side and top of the search. They are clearly labeled as ads if you want to avoid them it is easy to see the top 5 most relevant websites on the whole internet.
Google also provides many other services which we will not discuss at length but the first one they had as an image search which proves invaluable to most people. The effectiveness of this is just stellar. I always look forward to how Google will hone their skills and provide even better results with each new announcement!
Yahoo
The Follower
Yahoo! has not really fallen behind Google at many points but they do tend to follow. Their advertising is not quite as transparent so you occasionally get directed to a pointless website someone simply paid for you to see. I have no complaints about Yahoo! but over the years they have navigated farther from being purely a search engine more into E-mail clients and auctions as well as a social network. It is a solid engine to use. It all depends on what you like!
They also have many fun and entertaining features I would encourage you to check out! Have fun!
Bing
The New Comer
The new guy. Bing is a relatively new search engine. It was designed by Microsoft to combat Google's growing superiority. Something had to be done as Google Crushed into the app and software industries with a giant expendable income from their search engine. Microsoft invested a lot of manpower and money into developing Bing. This understandably was incredibly successful. Bing tends to focus solely on search results and their effectiveness as Microsoft already has other markets covered as Google and Yahoo attempt to break in. Advertising is a bit of a sham on Bing but I will leave the judgments up to you on whether or not it is the best!