Search Engines
Competition among the search engines is fierce and the battlegrounds are changing quickly. At the beginning of 2004, most estimates indicated that Google provided approximately 80% of all search results. This included direct users of Google as well as users searching on Yahoo, AOL and other others. By the beginning of 2005, Google's market share had dropped to approximately 54% as Yahoo dropped Google as the provider of its own natural search results. In the first quarter of 2005, MSN who had received its natural search results from Yahoo owned search engine Inktomi, launched its own search engine. By May 2008 Google’s US domestic market share was sitting at 61.6% with Yahoo a distant second at 20.4% and MSN trailing at 9.1%. Global search statistics put Google miles ahead with 78.16% market share barely followed by Yahoo at 12.03% and MSN in single digits at 2.86%.
Google: Incorporated in September of 1998 Google is a derivation of the word Googol which refers to the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. Reference to this term is indicative of Google's mission - to index the infinite data sources making up the world wide web.
- Natural Search Results: Googlebot, Google's spider crawls the web following and analyzing links and page content. Its PageRank technology is used to rate the quantity and quality of inbound links (links pointing to your website). Analysis of on page content examines textual content, fonts and placement of words.
Google provides natural search results to: AOL Search, Netscape, Ask.com, Earthlink and Iwon.
- Paid Results: Google AdWords is Google's pay per click (a.k.a. PPC, cost per click or CPC) offering. Click here to learn more about pay per click.
Google provides pay per click results to AOL Search, Netscape, Ask Jeeves Netscape and Iwon.
Yahoo: Founded in 1994, and launched as a human edited directory. While directory results are still available, today Yahoo search results are derived from a combination of several search engine technologies and Yahoo's paid inclusion program.
- Natural Search Results: Search results are generated using a combination of Inktomi, Fast and Altavista search engine technologies. Search results as seen by Yahoo partners Inktomi and Altavista sometime differ from those displayed on Yahoo.
- Paid Results: Yahoo! provides several opportunities for those willing to pay for exposure.
- Directory: Yahoo's Business Express Plan promises that your site will be reviewed within seven days, but does not guarantee inclusion in their directory.
- Index inclusion: Yahoo! is the only search engine offering paid index inclusion at this time.
- Pay Per Click: Yahoo! pay per click results are provided by Overture. Overture was purchased by Yahoo in July 2003. In addition to Yahoo!, Overture provides pay per click content to AlltheWeb, MSN, Excite and Altavista. In Q2 2005, Overture was renamed Yahoo! Search Marketing.
MSN: Microsoft has long been the world's leading software developer. In 2005 Microsoft, via MSN, launched it own search engine.
- Natural Search Results: Most of MSN's search results are provided by its search engine (spider called MSNBOT), although some of its results are still hand-picked by human editors. Some experts have observed that MSN tends to favor home page content over sub (or internal) pages. Prior to 2005, MSN accepted search results from Yahoo.
- Paid Results: Microsoft was the last of the big three to develop its own system for delivering pay-per-click ads. Until the beginning of 2006 all of the ads displayed on MSN were supplied by Overture (and later Yahoo!). As of June 2006 the contract between Microsoft and Yahoo! had expired and now MSN is displaying only ads from Microsoft adCenter.
What is the basis of the competition among the search engines?
Market share. Google, Yahoo! and MSN are all competing for our attention. More users equate to more revenue via pay per click ads and other advertising opportunities. To increase user loyalty, search engines focus on two activities:
- Delivery of highly relevant search results. The search engines know that if they serve non-relevant results in response to search queries users will eventually become frustrated and switch to an alternate search engine. Offerings like local search or My Yahoo! are attempts by the search engines to one-up the competition and provide better results.
- Better service through add-ons and extras. Over the last 4 years we have seen a continuous release of free search engine developed technological gadgets and gizmos. Search engine sponsored toolbars and desktop search capabilities are among the latest and greatest.
There are several sources of credible information that use slightly different statistics to compare search engine market share. Total number of searches, total unique users and total search time are among the commonly used measuring sticks. In the end, the consensus is that Google is clearly number one followed by Yahoo! and MSN.
Check out the Bruce Clay Inc. search engine relationship chart for specific details about who is feeding search results to whom.
By focusing on the big three, you will successfully target over 95% of all search engine results, which accounts for about 85% of all internet traffic.
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