Google still rule, but by how much?
Which search engines are most popular?
I decided to do a quick post on how popular each of the major search engines are, partly to highlight the market dominance of Google, but also to show the race for second place.
These stats are based on number of referrals to a range of sites that I work with (primarily UK based) and as such are just a general view of things as I see them. The list is not definitive by any means but should give a good idea of where things stand.
| Search engine | % market share |
| 85% | |
| Yahoo! | 10% |
| MSN | 2% |
| AOL | 2% |
| Ask.com | 1% |
Most SEO’s will/should already be familiar with these figures but some visitors may not be and could find the info useful.
As you can see (and probably already knew from personal experience) Google dominates and not by the odd percent either. My own research also suggests that Google’s market share is still increasing in comparison to other engines. No matter how hard they try, the other big players just cannot seem to make a dent in Google’s market share. Its probably no coincidence either, that Google is the hardest search engine to rank well in.
I really do believe that every dog has its day, having seen the rise and fall of engines like lycos, excite, hotbot and even Yahoo! in the past – I firmly believe that Google will not hold this position indefinetely. However, for the immediate future, Google dominate and the game is theirs to lose.
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