Google Alternatives

Recently I came across an interesting posting of a business owner who uses Google Places who received a request from Google for a copy of his business license. I don’t know if it was based on a violation but it made me think, “What if Google decided to request business licenses of other business owners, like freelancers/sole proprietors, who do not have a business license?”

It reminded me that it’s not a good idea to place all of your eggs in one basket, even though Google provides some great services for free.

Below I’ve listed alternatives to google that I came up by researching on the internet. Most are not based on my personal experience and none are any affiliate links (including Jaaxy). These alternatives are just the tip of the iceberg of what’s available and if you opt to try any out, do your due diligence and research the pros and cons to see what best suites your needs.

Google Alerts
Monitor website content, online reputation and brand presence by keeping tabs on your domain name, your name and reputation, keywords and discovery topics you can write about, your competition and local news and hot trends.

Alternatives
Pipes > pipes.yahoo.com
Monitor This > monitorthis.77elements.com
Giga Alert > gigaalert.com/signup.php
Social Mention> socialmention.com
Facebook Alert > hyperalerts.no
Twitter Alerts > tweetbeep.com

Google Search
Alternatives
Private search engines
Duck Duck Go > duckduckgo.com
StartPage > startpage.com/ (Same as Ixquick > ixquick.com
but just a new easier-to-remember name)


Google Trends & Google Insights
Monitor trends/news/keywords/subjects which are becoming more/less popular

Alternatives
Now Relevant > nowrelevant.com (Results for your inquiry for the past two weeks)
Yahoo Buzz Log > buzzlog.yahoo.com/overall
Topsy > topsy.com (Social Media)
Twazzup > twazzup.com (Social Media)
TrendsMap > trendsmap.com (Social Media)
Board Reader > boardreader.com (Search Forums)
Technocrati > technorati.com (Search Blogs)


Google Scholar
Even though Google Scholar won’t retrieve the full text of the article, you can identify potentially useful sources.

Alternatives
Base Search > base-search.net/index.php?l=en
Academic Index > academicindex.net


Google Adword Keyword Tool
Alternative
Jaaxy > jaaxy.com


Google Checkout
An online payment processing service

Alternatives
Authorize > Authorize.net
Merchant Anywhere > merchantanywhere.com (e-commerce)
PayPal > paypal.com
WorldPay > worldpay.com


Google Analytics
Monitor how many visitors are coming to your site, track what sites link to your site, which pages of your site is most popular, etc.

Alternatives
Woopra > woopra.com
Get Clicky > getclicky.com
Reinvigorate > reinvigorate.net
Piwik > piwik.org


Google Ad Planner
Google Ad Planner provides informations like unique visitor numbers, trends and audience composition.

Alternatives
Quantcast > Quantcast.com
Alexa > alexa.com
Compete > compete.com


Google Feedburner
Feedburner is a way to distribute content via subscription to regular updates, delivered automatically via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases email.

Alternatives
Feedity > feedity.com
FeedBlitz > feedblitz.com


Google Adsense & Adwords
Adsense - Get paid for displaying targeted ads on your website
Adwords - Market your products or services via the use of placed text ads

Alternatives
Bidvertiser > bidvertiser.com
Clicksor > clicksor.com

Google Places for Business
A listing of business locations

Alternatives
Yahoo Local > local.yahoo.com
Local.com > local.com

Google Reader
Once you've subscribed the websites that you read regularly, Google reader tells you which of the websites have updated, and what is the new content.

Alternatives
Feedly > feedly.com
Bloglines > bloglines.com

Google Drive
In Google Drive, you can create new documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
Note: Google documents https://docs.google.com transitioned to Google Drive

Alternatives
DropBox > DropBox.com
EverNote > EverNote.com
ZOHO > zoho.com/docs
Open Office > openoffice.org

Google URL Shortener
Alternatives
Ow.ly > ow.ly/url/shorten-url
Tiny URL > tinyurl.com
Bitly > bitly.com

Gmail
Alternatives
Zoho > zoho.com/mail
HushMail > hushmail.com


Google Voice
Use a single number that rings you anywhere.

Alternatives
PhoneBooth > phonebooth.com/free-business-voip
RingCentral > ringcentral.com

YouTube
Alternatives
Flicker > flickr.com/explore/video
Daily Motion > dailymotion.com