Linking to other search engines?

Will Google penalise for it?

[Alec Doggone]

I've been thinking about the latest Google update mess. Whether you agree or not, there are a considerable number of people who consider the latest update to be feeding spammy, poor quality results.

As a webmaster, if you think Google isn't the best search engine, you have a voice you can use by linking to other search engines and, for example, providing an ATW search box on your sites to build brand for a competitor.

My question is: would Google see that you are promoting a rival engine and give you a penalty?

[vincevincevince]

Search for teoma in google and you get teoma as the #1 result.
If google was in the game of reducing publicity for other engines, it would have replaced that with a Google result.

[dwilson]

Google would have to penalize DMOZ under such a model!

Certainly, they could tell you're linking to another engine. But for all the alledged problems w/ Dominic, Google never has been petty like that. Frankly, I don't think the market would support petty stuff like that. So I wouldn't worry about it.

[shaadi]

well said vincevincevince, now look at this! [search.msn.com], in the game of reducing publicity for other engines.

[ytswy]

[google.co.uk...]

Seems fairly unbiased to me :)

[Alec Doggone]

Thanks for the feedback. So, if Google doesn't penalise for linking to other search engines, and if any of the following is true:

1. your sites are generally and long-term doing better with another engine
2. your believe another engine offers better quality results

Then it would perhaps be a good idea to introduce your visitors to that alternative engine via a search box on your site. Maybe.