Google the Giant Search Engine

Google is twice as popular as Yahoo!, according to recent research.

(June 6 2002) We certainly have a lot of Google news these days. Says a lot about the growth and innovative capabilities of this search engine doesn't it?

Anyway, according to the website analysis software provider OneStat.com, Google is now by far the most popular search engine in the world. Google’s global usage share has now risen to 51 percent, according to OneStat, putting it far ahead of Yahoo! at 20 and MSN Search at 8,4 percent.

The next in line are Terra Lycos (4.34%), Altavista (3.81%), metasearch engine Ixquick (2.34%) and AOL Search (2.18%). The information is gathered from sites that are using OneStat.com’s real-time Web log services.

Nielsen//NetRatings recently published a study showing that US Web searchers spent nearly 13 million hours searching Google during March 2002,compared to Yahoo's 5.4 million search hours and MSN Search's 4.9 million. In a similar study Jupiter Media Metrix Google got 11.7 million search hours, compared to Yahoo's 6.5 million.

This proves that Google's tactic of giving priority to search quality pays off. Yes, you do need revenue, and the only way of financing sites like Google and Yahoo! is by selling advertising, being that banners or pay per click text ads. However, if you let the advertising get in the way of search quality or the overall user experience, searchers will go elsewhere.

At the moment some search engine companies seem to think that the more pay per click text ads you add to search results, the better. The philosophy is that searchers are not able to see the difference anyway, so they won't mind.

It is certainly true that many searchers are not aware of the fact that some of the results are paid text ads. It is also true that some of these ads can be quite relevant. In general, however, searchers looking for information (not goods and services) will notice that Google provides more relevant results, i.e. they find what they are looking for more often and faster. That makes them come back.

But surely, even Google has text ads! Yes, it does, but they cannot be confused with general search results, as they are presented in separate text boxes with a different background color.

Google spends a lot of resources on innovation, the goal being to improve search results and user experience. In the long run, that is the best strategy.

More search engine news...

The Pandia Post is our free bimonthly newsletter on Internet searching, search engines and directories.

We will give you the latest news from the world of Internet exploring, useful tips on how to improve your searching skills or search engine ranking, as well as information on the development of the Pandia Search Central.

We will never give your address to any other company or organization.