If you want to see just how competitive the search space has gotten, you need look no further than the complete mix of tools that I use on a regular basis.

The search engines are trying to be a “one stop shop” but they all have their hits and misses.

Here is my list:

Toolbar – Google; because I like the “blog this button” for blogger. No other reason, hence gets about half of my searches

Homepage – My Yahoo; great for keeping track of stocks, news, weather etc. I now probably do half my searching with Yahoo because of My Yahoo.

RSS (desktop) – Newsgator; I like reading feeds from Outlook

RSS (laptop) – Bloglines; just seems easier when on the road (I may switch desktop to Bloglines soon).

Instant Messenger – Trillian; no ads and I can IM both AOL and MSN accounts

Map Search – was MapQuest, now switched to Google Maps

Image search – Ask Jeeves; they just seem to have a fresher index

Blog search – Feedster; results seem accurate and updated often

Blog backlinks – Technorati; again seems to be most accurate

Desktop Search – Google for quick searches in email; Copernic for deeper searches

News Search – both Google and Yahoo

Local Search – Yahoo; just because

Shopping – Pricegrabber; I always seem to find best prices and good selection of vendors

Webmail – Yahoo for personal; GMail for the blog

Isn’t that crazy? You’d think that one provider would be able to accomodate all of my needs, but I find that no one company has gotten everything right. It goes to show how tough it’s going to be for these companies to dominate in more than one space.

Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant and considered one of the world’s most respected and interactive search engine marketing experts. Andy has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies such as Motorola, CitiFinancial, Lowes, Alaska Air, DeWALT, NBC and Experian.

You can read his internet marketing blog at Marketing Pilgrim and reach him at andy.beal@gmail.com.