Motion estimation is an important part of the MPEG-4 encoder, due to its significant impact on the bit rate and the output quality of the encoder sequence. Unfortunately this feature takes a significant part of the encoding time especially when the straightforward full search(FS) algorithm is used. In this paper, a new algorithm named diamond block based gradient descent search (DBBGDS) algorithm, which is significantly faster than FS and gives similar quality of the output sequence, is proposed. At the same time, some other algorithms, such as three step search (TSS), improved three step search (ITSS), new three step search (NTSS), four step search (4SS), cellular search (CS) , diamond search (DS) and block based gradient descent search (BBGDS), are adopted and compared with DBBGDS. As the experimental results show, DBBGDS has its own advantages. Although DS has been adopted by the MPEG-4 VM, its output sequence quality is worse than that of the proposed algorithm while its complexity is similar to the proposed one. Compared with BBGDS, the proposed algorithm can achieve a better output quality.