Google Search Engine King - barely
I would have thought that Google was far and away King of the search Engines, but apparently it is barely ahead of the others, says a recent survey. Yahoo and MSN are close behind.
Yahoo is tied with Google on their local search, which seems to be one of the new search engine battlegrounds. A fascinating blog focusing on local search is http://localsearchideas.blogspot.com/
Yahoo is tied with Google on their local search, which seems to be one of the new search engine battlegrounds. A fascinating blog focusing on local search is http://localsearchideas.blogspot.com/
posted by Ted Demopoulos at 1:55 PM
Comments on "Google Search Engine King - barely"
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Day Late Critic said ... (Wednesday, February 02, 2005 12:27:00 PM) :
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Marketing Guy said ... (Wednesday, February 02, 2005 4:50:00 PM) :
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Ted Demopoulos said ... (Thursday, February 03, 2005 9:18:00 PM) :
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pri said ... (Wednesday, February 09, 2005 8:50:00 PM) :
post a commentIt is my belief that Yahoo and MSN's hold on the search engine market is directly related to their email account offerings (both free services). Meaning that when people access their accounts they continue on the site to search (don't have exact numbers regarding current account holders).
My point is this -- once Google releases GMail to the public I believe that #1 yahoo, msn and others will see a sharp drop in new account sign-ups #2 A slow steady drop in search queries and #3 A slow steady drop in advertising dollars.
I am obviously a fan of Google but I believe that email accounts are a large factor in the search engine equation. People love one stop shopping.
Ted, thanks for your kind mention of my Blog ... I am in the process of doing local search queries on all of the major players and based on some input I've decided to include some lesser known companies as well.
I've really just started, but after looking for a dentist located close to my home using Google Local I have given up after many frustrating minutes fumbling with the map and actually never being directed to the information I needed. I understand the need for companies to get their product out early for competitive purposes but if the consumer is ultimately discouraged by his or her experience they will likely rule the option of local search out of their mind for a long time to come.
If it wasn't a subject area I was interested in I would likely write-off local search as an easy way to find a local service or business.
Day Late Critic,
You have a great point. My wifes uses AOL search because she uses AOL!
Jim,
Local Search has a long way to go. I think it will get there eventually, but who knows exactly what form it will take?
I still prefer Icerocket.com to Google. It provides several features Google still doesn't and being a metasearcher gives out more and better results.
Give it a try and, in case you like it, use my quicksearch plugins for Opera or Firefox that can be found at my weblog.