UFO Related Searches Across Three Search Engines: A Comparison
I’ve heard more than one comment indicating that search results vary widely when searching for specific UFO related searches on different search engines. The comment I’ve heard often about UFO related searches is that Google doesn’t seem to generate the desired results as often as DuckDuckGo or Bing.
Let’s do some testing and see what we can discover.
Methodology
I created 24 UFO and UAP searches, both general and specific, and put them through three search engines: Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo. The 24 searches are in 5 categories as outlined at the bottom of this post. Points were awarded for each of the top 5 search results that directly related to the search. For example a search term “UAP Footage” needs to return a page with at least one piece of UAP video. A search “US army helicopter films UFOs” needs to return an article on that specific topic.
Results
The UFO community will not be surprised to learn that Google returned notably inferior results compared to Bing and DuckDuckGo. For each of the 24 search terms we examined the top 5 search results giving 120 possible valid results. The search engines returned correct results as follows:
- DuckDuckGo 82% Correct results
- Bing 72% Correct results
- Google 48% Correct results
Strengths and Weaknesses
All of the engines were uniformly good in finding specific sites and specific people. For example, searching for a specific web site or YouTube channel by name reliably returned the YouTube channel, associated web site, and associated social media handles in the top 5 results. A search for a relatively well known UFO investigator or experiencer such as Joe Murgia or Travis Walton resulted in directly relevant results in all search engines.
However, specific recent UFO or UAP news related topics returned poor results in Google – 40% versus 73 and 93% with Bing and DuckDuckGo. Of particular note was DuckDuckGo’s ability to find 4 relevant hits on the (then) new information from Jeremy Corbell under the search: video of US military shooting at UFOs. Google returned no hits.
Searches for UFO related materials also returned dismal results in Google searches. Searching for terms like UFO footage, UAP pictures or UFO documents returned a desired search result only 47% of the time in Google, with Bing and DuckDuckGo returning 70 and 80% respectively.
When searching for UFO related sites, Google is at its worst. Searching using terms like UFO sightings site, UFO News Sites, or UAP Blogs, Google fell flat. Searches for UFO related sites delivered relevant results in Google searches 23% of the time while they were successful in Bing and DuckDuckGo 72% and 82% of the time respectively.
Other Observations
Googles results appeared different than the other search engines in the following ways:
- Google has a strong propensity to give you mainstream media (Think: ABCNews, PBS, Newsweek) links before more relevant results
- Unless searching for a specific UFO related person or site by name, virtually no UFO/UAP specific sites appeared in the top 5 results of Google searches
- Similarly, if Google is going to point you at a data repository, it’s likely a U.S. government one like the CIA’s FOIA reading room
- Finally, they will clearly favor their own property, YouTube, over more relevant material when searching for video footage
Interestingly, Google results were slightly better when using the government sanctioned term UAP (40% success) rather than UFO (30% success)
Summary
I think of it this way: You have multiple search tools available to you when doing your UFO related searches. As a UFO interested search user, realize that finding what you want may require searches outside of your favorite search engine. Google is great for finding specific people and sites and good at showing you mainstream media and government generated information. Bing and DuckDuckGo are better at getting at the rest of the UFO internet.
I start my searches with DuckDuckGo and revert to Google if I’m not finding what I want, knowing that I will at least get different results with Google. Your mileage may vary.
Search Criteria Used
UFO/UAP site searches: Criteria – one point for each top 5 result that is a UFO news site or a list of news sites
- ufo news sites
- uap news sites
- ufo sightings sites
- UAP sightings sites
- ufo blogs
- UAP blogs
UFO/UAP material: Criteria – one point for each top 5 result that is a page containing UFO footage (e.g.) or a page listing multiple footages
- ufo footage
- uap footage
- ufo pictures
- uap pictures
- ufo documents
- uap documents
Specific people: One point for each top 5 result that directly references a person’s web site, YouTube channel, twitter handle etc.
- linda moulton howe
- travis walton
- joe Murgia
Specific sites: One point for each top 5 result that directly references the web site, , YouTube channel, twitter handle etc.
- uapnewscenter.com
- ufos.news
- Intelligent disclosure
- earthfiles
- findingUFO
- thirdphasofmoon
Specific recent topics: One point for each top 5 result that directly references an article on this specific topic
- US army helicopter films ufos
- homeland security agents encounter UAPs
- video of US military shooting at UFOs
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