New Search Engines 

The best search engine was AltaVista before Google arrived. And just as AltaVista lost the #1 spot, disappeared and died, so will Google. Perhaps the successor will be one of these?

 Exalead 

Exalead - despite concentrating on the corporate sector, this web search engine's results are the equal of Google, plus they provide thumbnails previews & advanced results refininement.

 GigaBlast 

GigaBlast - results are the equal of the top 4, but with less spam. It features links to the Internet Archive, cached copies, the ability to report spam and more...It suggests alternative searches & has no ads! 1 Billion pages indexed, and created by one guy. A true underdog that deserves success.

 Rob's Other Top Picks 

• A9 - combines MSN search results with Amazon store results. Add Wikipedia and Answers.com to the mix if you choose. Still evolving, owned by Amazon.

 Promised Much, but... 

• Walhello - 2.4 billion pages indexed. Results are average, with an unpleasant layout. Been online since 2000.
• Wisenut - owned by Looksmart. Ordinary results.
• A9 - combines MSN search results with Amazon store results. Add Wikipedia and Answers.com to the mix if you choose. Still evolving, owned by Amazon.
• Mooter - visual search engine that proclaims it has "the power of relevance"
• Accoona - you can filter results by country, companies or people mentioned, language... but the results are poor
• CompWisdom / FactBites - the best results page snippets by far, but results in general are weak
• Mozdex Open Search - seeded by the Open Directory, it lays its algorithm bare for all to see. Shame the algorithm isn't better...
• Yahoo Mindset - brilliant idea, rates sites according to shopping-ness or research-ness, and lets us alter the mix of the results. Would be good if it worked...