Google Search
The search engine that sets the default for the web, and sells attention to pay for it.
Benchmark review. Giants are reviewed rarely, to show what the tools in the directory are measured against. This one is not listed in the directory, and it is an example, not a recommendation. Scores are our opinion on the six questions, based on public sources and dated October 2026.
Google handled about 90% of global searches in 2025, and it finds what most people want quickly. In August 2024 a US federal judge ruled that Google held an illegal monopoly over search and search advertising, and found it kept its lead by paying phone makers and browser developers to make it the default. Its revenue comes from ads, and reporters citing internal documents from that case described the product as bloated and overmonetised.
AI Overviews, which reached US users in May 2024, put a generated answer above the results and drew criticism for errors that Google called isolated examples. Google has also been criticised for long-lived cookies that can track searches. It is free and fast, and a good example of a tool that is dominant for good reasons and still leaves you few alternatives.
- About 90% of global searches in 2025
- A US judge ruled in 2024 that Google held an illegal search monopoly
- Paid for by ads, with AI Overviews above the results
