Not all searches begin with Google

More than half of all Internet searches in the United States go through Google, but in some cases, that may not be the best option.

It’s possible to diversify, and here are three places to start:

Ask.com

The renamed former AskJeeves site has developed an assortment of useful features. It was one of the first to introduce a result preview option; scroll over the binoculars icon in a result, and a preview of the page pops up. Any search produces a way to refine or expand a search, all one click away on the right side of the results page.

Exalead.com

Exalead is a European search engine and one of the smartest new choices. It presents a search result with audio and video tabs, allowing a user to quickly find those results too. The main results page also displays groupings based on source language, related topics and Web site location.

Gigablast.com

Although it’s not the most advanced new site, Gigablast does give some interesting alternative results. One is a summary offering related terms to narrow or expand results. Search “North Idaho” and the results suggest “bits” like “Coeur d’Alene” and other terms that produce additional hits. The list of bits also offers percentages of results. For instance, clicking the “Coeur d’Alene” bit produces a 69 percent figure, meaning if “North Idaho” produced 1,000 results, the “North Idaho” and “Coeur d’Alene” search will produce 690. This is useful if you don’t know exactly what you want to find on a topic. Gigablast also has a contract — not yet finished — to allow faster search of the nation’s vast .gov directories.