Ask just about anyone what they use to search for information on the internet, and pat comes the reply. Google. Type "search engine" into Google, and you might land up at Bing, Dogpile or Yahoo. But did you know that there are several other ways to search for information and news, some arguably even offering you a more efficient and innovative experience than Google? Here's my pick of the hidden gems for search, including one you probably know already but don't associate with search.

DuckDuckGo: At first, you'd probably mistake DuckDuckGo for Google. That is, if you didn't notice the comical duck with a bowtie in its logo! Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo spells out their biggest draw right on the front page - they don't track you (or your search history) and serve up less 'spammy' results in the bargain. Also unique to DuckDuckGo is their zero-click info, a quick snippet style description of what you're searching for without even navigating away from DuckDuckGo. It also offers disambiguation prompts, which helps clarify what question you are really asking. Are you feeling ducky?

Blekko: Search for anything online these days, and a ton of what you see first is sites that are filled with keywords meant solely to capture traffic without providing too much new information. Blekko uses what it calls "slashtags" to group results into several categories and deliver results that are relevant, and you can use the existing slashtags, typically of the form '/India', to say filter only for results that have to do with India (you can even create your own slashtags to help improve the service).

Yippy: Meta search engines are those that grab and consolidate results from several other search services, and while they may be waning in popularity, you should try Yippy if you want a meta search engine that does not track or monitor your searches (much like DuckDuckGo).

Qwiki: Unlike Wikipedia, which requires you to read whole screenfuls of information to get an overview on a subject, Qwiki lets you search among more than 2 million 'Qwikis' that each tell a story about the subject, in the form of a neatly put together slideshow of images and text accompanied by a computer generated voiceover. It's been called a "movie highlight reel of Wikipedia pages", and that's pretty much what it is. Warning: can lead to a lot of Qwiki-surfing and loss of productivity!

Truveo: Specialised video search that spans the most popular video sharing and news sites. Enough said. Also, try Blinkx for more of the same.

Isohunt: A Bit Torrent search engine, Isohunt does not host files - it only helps you find files, and therefore is a completely legal service to hopefully help you find legal Bit Torrrent download files.

FoodieView: For all those times when you're wondering what to cook for dinner, FoodieView to the rescue. As the name suggests, it is a recipe search engine searching over 175,000 recipes from numerous sources, including AllRecipes.com, The Food Network, Martha Stewart Recipes, and many more. It's also extremely easy to find good recipes on FoodieView that are actually relevant to what your search query is such as if you are looking for a recipe using only certain ingredients.

Healthline: No, you do not need an MBBS degree to venture onto Healthline, a medical information search engine. Perfect for the little reading up that you should do to be a more informed patient.

Twitter: Wait a minute, isn't twitter for sending and interacting with byte-sized updates? Head over to search.twitter.com and you'll realise it's a great way to find out about the news and interesting links people are talking about right now!

Impressive Progeny

A successor to the popular Sony NEX line of ultra-compact mirror-less cameras can only be a good thing, and the NEX-C3 lives up to the family name. Packing in 16.2 megapixels in a camera body smaller than the current-gen NEX-5, this is the smallest camera body to sport a full size digital SLR sensor without forsaking performance - this baby shoots at a maximum 5.5 frames per second!   URL: http://bit.ly/kVmZ3b Price: $649