If you thought Google was one of the earliest search engines for browsing the world wide web, you are wrong. While the Google prototype was created in 1995, it started being functional in 1997. However, there were already major competitors to Google at that point besides Yahoo Search – the Dogpile Search Engine.
Ever since beginning its operations back in 1996 after being created by Aaron Finn, this search engine has slowly increased its user base over time, becoming a popular search engine. While it’s not as big as Google, it still gets the job of internet searching done quickly.
So should I stop using Google and switch to Dogpile? Let’s find out!
Dogpile.com search engine functions like every other search engine like Google, Bing, and Yahoo Search. It has a search bar where you type in what you want to search. After you do so, Dogpile Search Engine will proceed to show relevant web pages to you.
However, like other search engines that show results based on their webpage index, search engine Dogpile shows results by combining the most relevant results from all search engine indexes. Therefore, results that might be specific to Google and Bing will also appear here! You can even find “Is Blogging Dead?” blogs here as well!
This aforementioned feature is the only unique feature of the Dogpile website that makes it better than other search engines. Therefore, it can help you find a real estate social network quicker than its peers!
Also, just like Google, you have the “Preferences” or settings tab to customize what you wish to see. Here, you can tweak various settings of Dogpile. The three preferences you can customize here are:
When I first visited Dogpile.com, I was taken aback by how retro and 90s this search engine looks. Its logo is simple, and unlike the illustration-less approach of Google, there is a cute dog and his kennel. The dog – Arfie the Search Engine Dog – has been the mascot of Dogpile since its inception.
This made me wonder why this metasearch engine is named Dogpile Search Engine. We all know that dogs love to collect bones and anything that interests them, right? They have a tendency to bring these “items of interest” back to their kennel.
If you think about it, a search engine does the same. You type in what you want, and it will “fetch” data for you – much like a dog. Additionally, instead of a “Search” button, it has a “Go Fetch” button instead!
Therefore, I believe Dogpile is the perfect name for a search engine.
However, even though it has the perfect name for a search engine, how good does it feel to use it?
Here, Dogpile is one of the more minimalistic search engines compared to competitors like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. There are no cluttered designs and menus, and everything looks simplistic. The way the UI is designed, it feels like a retro search engine, which it is.
The homepage has a simple layout. The search box is in the middle, with the search categories like Web, Images, Videos, and News right above it. Below the search box, the “Favorite Fetches” section is there showcasing the most popular searches.
After you search for something, the search results are shown in a similar way compared to other search engines. The only difference here is that the option for search categories appears on the left in a sidebar. Along with the four aforementioned search categories, Shopping is added here as the fifth category. Therefore, here it’s the same as Google.
In addition, on this left sidebar, the “Recent Searches” section appears below the categories. Here all your recent searches will be displayed here. To see this in Google, you had to click on the Search bar. This is something Google can make use of.
However, one major con that I found here was the fact that whenever the search results turn up, ads are always the first result to be displayed on top of the page. Google shows ads after the first two or three search results. Therefore, there’s a chance that the first few search results in Dogpile Search Engine are ads. Some of them are also taken from the Facebook Ad Library.
This made my experience somewhat jarring, considering that I hate ads, despite knowing it’s the way search engines generate income. Google shows ads in a better way, not letting them get in the way of your search experience.
One of my biggest cons of using the Dogpile Search Engine has been its data collection and privacy settings.
Unlike Google and Bing, which explicitly states what data they are collecting from your browser, you can choose to turn some of them off. However, nobody knows what data Dogpile collects from your browser. In addition, there are no settings to toggle some of them on and off either!
However, after digging through the Privacy Policies of Dogpile, I finally found out what data they fetch. Dogpile fetches a lot of data from your browser – a lot of data, to be honest. However, since they fall under the System1 privacy policy, they are legally on the green here.
Dogpile Search Engine collects a lot of data like:
In addition to the fact that you cannot customize which data you permit Dogpile to access, they do so automatically as you use it. Therefore, what they do with such information and such an in-depth level of online tracking is still unclear. This is what makes Dogpile an unsafe search engine with fewer layers of privacy protection.
This is where even lesser-known search engines like DuckDuckGo become the champion for advocating internet anonymity. DuckDuckGo collects zero information about you, making it the safest search engine.
When it comes to the battle between Dogpile and Google to determine which search engine is better, the answer is a no-brainer here.
Google is hands down the best search engine – the primary reason why you use it on a daily basis. While it collects a lot of user data by default, you can customize its permissions from the settings. Dogpile has no such accessibility option.
On the other hand, Google is clearly the winner here since it integrates its search engine with various Google apps like Docs, Sheet, Meet, Classroom, etc. Plus, Google now owns YouTube, providing video recommendations for your searches easily!
If you want to simply search for relevant data on the internet, the Dogpile Search Engine is amazing. Since it incorporates the website indexes of all other search engines, it provides the best and the most number of results compared to its peers.
However, it lacks modernity since it has not been keeping up with trends, which other search engines have. Plus, with unclear privacy settings and lesser features overall, it’s difficult to recommend this search engine over others. While it might provide the best results, it’s not enough to give this search engine a recommendation.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| a. Best search results b. Biggest website index base c. Supported on all browsers on all platforms | a. Unclear privacy and tracking settings b. Tracks too much private information without prior disclosure c. Lots of ads |
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Abdul Aziz Mondol is a professional blogger who is having a colossal interest in writing blogs and other jones of calligraphies. In terms of his professional commitments, he loves to share content related to business, finance, technology, and the gaming niche.
