BlindSearch evaluates Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines
Tim Finin, 9:10am 7 June 2009Who’s got the best basic web search engine? One way to approach that question is to conduct an experiment in which subjects rank the results returned by several engines without knowing which is which.
BlindSearch is a simple and neat site that collects ‘objective’ opinions on search quality by showing query results from Google, Yahoo and Bing side by side without identifying which is which and inviting you to select the best.
“Type in a search query above, hit search then vote for the column which you believe best matches your query. The columns are randomised with every query.
The goal of this site is simple, we want to see what happens when you remove the branding from search engines. How differently will you perceive the results?”
As of this writing there have been 1679 votes for preferred results with Google getting 39%, Bing 39% and Yahoo: 22%.
update 2:14pm edt 6/7: Google: 45%, Bing: 32%, Yahoo: 22% | 11,130 votes
Ebiquity Blog
June 7th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
This is not as blind as one would like. Google have made it clear publicly on a number of occasions that their results have a strong ordering for certain types of queries. For example, try searching for ‘dung beetle’ and note the YouTube link at the 4th position on one of the columns.
Similarly, I think they’ve stated that public “Google Profiles” pages appear after the 10th hit.