Google is simply the most comprehensive search engine available on the net. Aside searching the net you can use Google's extended search features for a whole host of other things including definitions, spell check, calculator, conversions, and much more. Plus there are other Google searches.

Once upon a time web searching began and ended with Yahoo. After a time in the wilderness Yahoo! are back with an excellent search engine that is easily in the same game as Google.

Much as we hate and despise anything that comes from the Microsoft, we can't escape the fact that their MSN search is actually very good. Had it not been a Microsoft creation, it might have gotten 5 stars.

Created by some former 'Googlers' Cuil (pronounced 'cool') isn't bad, but isn't that good yet either. It shows search results in a new layout and confusingly attaches thumbnail pictures to results that the pictures actually don't belong to. It's early days for cuil, but so far so good.

A very modern looking website that displays a preview of the site in a page-book layout that lets you flip through search results. Very stylish indeed, one to watch.

Jeeves got fired in February, but that hasn't reallcy changed anything. 'Ask' is still able to offer a decent selection of results, though sometimes they seem a little out of date.

Once laden with ads-a-plenty AltaVista has chosen to go back to its bare bones search engine roots and offer a relatively ad-light environment. The results are powered by Yahoo though, so there seems little point in using AltaVista if you have already used Yahoo.

Trusty old Lycos might have all the style of a drunken street brawl but that doesn't mean they can't offer a decent selection of results. Plus we found that searching their picture engine gave us quite different results from other engines out there. An improvement as far as we're concerned.

It's hard to get too excited about Dmoz. It's a search directory edited by average people. The problem with your average person though is they're lazy and lose interest in things, a trait this engine reflects well.

Amazon's A9 made a good start but it seems the online retailer lost enthusiasm for the project. It's no longer a serious search engine player and thus has been downgraded to a 2 star player.

We used to hate dogpile because it was crap and had a terrible name. It still has a terrible name, but it's not too bad these days.

This engine gets a poor rating because it just feels dated and old. The search results are okay, but in truth this feels like a site that someone has forgotten about.