Mobile search engines are useful for browsing the web from a tablet or smartphone. While there are lots of search engines out there, not all of them are optimized for mobile users.
A mobile search engine is more important now than ever before as more and more people drop their desktops in favor of shopping, researching, and finding websites from their mobile devices.
Below is an overview of seven of the best search engines for mobile users. Each is easy to use from a variety of devices and provides accurate results.
These picks are usable from the web browser on your device, so you don’t need to download an app. However, all of them do have dedicated mobile apps, too, so below are links to the web versions and the apps.
Google: The Classic Search Engine With Relevant Results
The same Google we all know and love is also available as a mobile search engine, offering quick results with the option to search locally for images, maps, and much more.
Has unique features.
Provides web, image, and other searches.
Integrates with the company’s other services.
Sometimes mixes results from other search categories.
Some search filters are missing, only available from the desktop version.
If you decide to log in to your Google account, your searches, history, and preferences will be synced across whatever devices you use, making your experience as streamlined and seamlessly integrated as possible.
Of all the mobile search engines out there, this one resembles its desktop version the most.
You can use it from any device by visiting the Google home page, but there’s also an app for Android, iPad, and iPhone.
YouTube: Search Millions of Videos in Seconds
YouTube is always a great choice for streaming music, watching trending videos, staying up to date with news channels, and more. The mobile version is identical to the desktop version, with a few exceptions.
Finds all kinds of videos.
Includes a restricted mode.
Has filtering options to refine searches.
Supports lots of languages.
Missing many of the filtering options found in the desktop version.
When you run a search, you get two options: choose to search for channels, playlists, or all content; and show videos that were updated anytime or just the ones from today, this week, this month, or this year. The settings let you turn on Restricted Mode and change the language and location.
There’s a mobile version of YouTube that works on mobile devices, but there’s also a dedicated app for iOS and Android. The app lets you filter by upload date, view count, and rating; type of content (movie, video, playlist, etc.); duration; and feature (4K, 3D, HR, live, and more).
JustWatch: Find Free and Cheap Movie Streams
JustWatch is a movie search engine that saves you time when you’re looking for something new to watch.
Available in dozens of countries.
Customizable to you.
View trending searches.
Supports movies and TV shows.
Can become cluttered and hard to use.
Not only does it scour the internet to show you the latest and most popular films people are streaming, it’s an excellent way to see where you can watch a specific title. It even shows you if the movie you’re interested in is free somewhere, or how much it costs if it’s not.
What makes this search engine stand out is how comprehensive it is. You can tell it which streaming platforms you subscribe to, and it’ll filter the results so they are relevant to just you.
Some of the filters you can edit include release year, IMDb rating, price, genre, and quality.
The website works well, but if you’d like to have a dedicated app, it’s available for mobile devices, LG TV, Samsung TV, and Xbox.
Twitter: Search What’s Happening Right Now
While Twitter is used primarily as a microblogging application, it’s starting to morph into a legitimate search engine, especially when used from your mobile device when looking for breaking news or local events.
Includes an advanced search tool for more precise searches.
Shows trending searches.
Lets you sort and filter the results a number of ways.
Must log in to perform searches.
Because of the extensive number of users and small character count for posts, Twitter tends to be updated much faster than typical news outlets.
You can perform a basic search to find the top Tweets or the latest ones. Open Twitter’s advanced search page to hide sensitive content, find Tweets near your physical location, exclude words from the results, find Tweets between specific dates only, and more.
The mobile Twitter page works within your browser, but you can also get Twitter as an app for your Android, Windows Phone, or iOS device.
Searches for consumer products.
Huge number of filtering options.
Search results can be sorted a handful of ways.
Provides delivery details without having to access your account.
Shows sponsored posts before organic ones.
Open it on your phone or tablet to get the browser version, or download the Android or iOS app to your device for extra features like a reverse search to find items by an image or barcode, and built-in Alexa support.
DuckDuckGo: Private, Encrypted Web Searches
DuckDuckGo is another web search engine like Yahoo Search and Google Search, but its primary difference is that it’s focused on privacy—it doesn’t track what you look up on the internet.
Doesn’t track your web searches.
Lots of filtering options.
Highly customizable.
It’s cluttered compared to other mobile search engines.
Another defining feature is that the mobile version supports a massive variety of filtering options. You can restrict web page results to ones updated the past day only, for example, and find images of a certain size or color, videos of a particular duration, and more.
Beyond search options are general settings, appearance options, and other details that you can change from the settings.
To use it on your tablet or phone, open the DuckDuckGo website or use the app for Android or iOS.
Yahoo Search: Simple and Easy to Use
Yahoo’s mobile search engine is very simple. It lets you search for web pages, news, images, and videos in a clean interface. The home page also shows the top 10 current trending topics.
Clean and uncluttered interface.
Quick access to web, news, and other searches.
Extremely easy to use.
Zero advanced options or filtering features.
The only settings you can change are whether you want to enable or disable SafeSearch, and how many results should be visible on each page. You can also view your search history and/or turn it off.
The mobile version of Yahoo Search isn’t the only way to get this search engine. For a fuller experience that matches the desktop version more, you can get the mobile app for Android or iOS.
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