taxpod - 6:10 pm on Jan 30, 2004 (gmt 0)

Years ago ordinary folk asked me how to find X or Y and I said Yahoo. So did perhaps millions of others. Thus was Yahoo built into the behemoth it is now. Then a few years back millions of people started answering the question with Google. Nowadays people are asking again.

Are we all still saying Google? That's the measure.

A few months back my wife, an avid searcher, finder and buyer, was searching for something but had zero luck on Google. She asked where she should go, I said ATW. Guess what, she found it in the first position. Does that mean ATW serps are better? No. But the first word out of my mouth was ATW and she has already told two friends, and so have they.

It's word of mouth, dude. Take an informal poll of your friends, co-workers and family. Then report back here. I'd be willing to bet that Google is the first word out of the mouths of most people but the real question is, is that changing.

I disagree with the comments regarding the ability/knowledge level of the average surfer. It used to be that way but as with anything that is in broad use, that has changed and will change more. People have been spending a lot of time online.