It is well-known that the problem of MEG source localization can be cast as an optimization problem. So far, there have been many works in which various optimization methods were adopted for source localization. In this paper, we compare the performance of three typical and widely used optimization techniques for a specific MEG source localization problem. We first introduce a hybrid algorithm by combining genetic and local search strategies to overcome disadvantages of conventional genetic algorithms. Second, we apply the tabu search, a widely used optimization method in combinational optimization and discrete mathematics, to source localization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt in the literature to apply tabu search to MEG/EEG source localization. Third, in order to further compare the performance of the above algorithms, simulated annealing is also applied to MEG source localization problem. The computer simulation results show that our local genetic algorithm is the most effective approach to dipole localization, and the tabu search method is also a very good strategy for this problem.