There are two projects going on today to see if we can survive without the major search engines. The first project is for searchers, to see if they can search alternative search engines without using the five major engines. The second project is for search marketers, to see if they can generate enough traffic and sales without the five major search engines.

Searcher Challenge:

Day Without Google Begins! from Read/Write Web has Richard MacManus joining the campaign as a searcher. The rules, as explained at Alt Search Engines, are as follows:

1. All day Tuesday, June 12th, don’t use any of the 5 major search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Live (MSN), Ask.com and AOL (Google powers AOL).

2. Avoid Meta search engines, since most of them include the major search engines. (for this day only! Meta search engines are important; see the Great Debate Tuesday night!)

3. Likewise, the specialized vertical search engines may be too narrowly focused. (for this day only. It’s the vertical search engines that usually search the best; within their niche.)

4. Consider changing your homepage or downloading their toolbar. You can always uninstall everything and change back on Wednesday.

5. On Wednesday, leave a detailed comment under this post and share your experience with the rest of us. Which alt search engine did you chose? How would you rate the experience?

There are plenty of alternative search engines to choose from. Make sure to share your experience!

Search Marketer Challenge:

Hide and Speak: Google, We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Google! from Search Engine Guide shows that Jennifer Laycock is blocking Googlebot, Teoma (Ask.com’s spider), msnbot, and Slurp (Yahoo’s spider) on some of her new sites, to make a point. Her point?

I’m kicking Google (and Yahoo and Windows Live and Ask) to the curb and telling the world that you CAN build a business, increase traffic and drive sales all without the major search engines.

Is Jennifer crazy? Well, maybe. She is doing this for a new article series on building traffic. Should make for a fun read.

Related Topics: Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Search Marketing: General | SEM Industry: General | SEO: General

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz