While it's no secret that Yahoo acquired numerous Search Engines as they built their search technology portfolio over the years, what many people don't know is that Google and Microsoft have a few other search places on the web as well.
Microsoft owns start.com which now redirects to it's Live.com product but was up until recently where most of the publicly viewable testing for Live was done. There were are variety of entrance points to the site where you could view various renditions of the 'new' Microsoft search product and even provide feedback during the months leading up the the Live.com launch.
With somewhat of an identity crisis still going on between MSN and Live.com, maybe Microsoft should be trying something new back at Start.com? At the very least, it would create a little buzz (and it would be a lot cheaper than buying Yahoo?).
Back in Mountain View ....
On the web for sometime, SearchMash.com is owned by Google. I often find myself going back to SearchMash. It's simplicity and speed reminds me of Google before the arrival of Google Universal Search, provides some information and results that the main index doesn't (in an uncluttered way), and also still allows user feedback.
I honestly have no idea if that feedback is still being monitored or not, but if you've never seen SearchMash, it's worth checking out. As of this point, it's very much still there (and ad-free!).
Duck Charlie ... you've just been banned again ...