Search Engine
Stats - Google Rules the Roost
Google 32%
Yahoo 25%
AOL 19%
MSN 15%
ASK 3%
Other 6%
According to a recent survey conducted by comScore Media Metrix, Google's
reputation as the most popular and powerful search engine is secure.
The survey followed the habits of 1.5 Million English speaking Internet
users in the US, Canada and the UK and has spawned two sets of user-frequency
numbers. The first stats shows the percentage of Internet users
who conducted their searches at a specific search engine by typing a
URL into the address-bar of their browser. The results are
hardly surprising but given the dispersal of ownership in the search
engine world, somewhat deceptive. For example, AOL owns both AOL Search
and Netscape. Numbers for Netscape would be bundled in with AOL's numbers
in this survey.
Google 76%
MSN 15%
ASK 3%
Others 6%
The next set of stats shows the actual distribution of search
results based on which search tool is feeding results to the others.
Google remains the clear leader in the distribution of search results
with over 3/4 of all search engine listings being returned by Google.
The results of the survey may appear strange until one remembers that
Google powers results from Yahoo, AOL, Netscape and dozens of other
search tools. Regardless of the corporate shenanigans being played out
by MSN and Yahoo in their bids to unseat Google, the little, privately
owned search tool from the Valley continues to dominate the search engine
market. Google shouldn't get too comfortable though. MSN is developing
its own search database and will try to make Google the Netscape of
the early 2K's. Sooner or later, they will cease providing results powered
by Google. The same will be said of Yahoo who, through the purchases
of Overture (including AltaVista and AlltheWeb search engines), will
soon no longer require Google's services. 2002 was the year search started
being taken seriously. 2003 has been the year of the acquisition. 2004
will likely become the year of the great search fallout. Watch for it.
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