Forum Moderators: open
Only 3 months have passed since the start of the "Grand European Plan" [webmasterworld.com] but a large amount of information on European search engines and directories has already been amassed, even at this early stage. So I thought it was about time for the first of a series of quarterly reports, to complement the Overview of Europe [webmasterworld.com], which contains useful figures and statistics.
One thing that can be said even now, is that the often repeated assertion that 90% of the world's search traffic goes through 8 to 10 leading engines is wrong to the point of being ridiculous. The pattern in Europe is clear. In most countries one or two leading engines have as much traffic as all others put together. These are typically purely local engines, well entrenched and oftentimes owned by the country's leading ISP - which is usually the same as the country's leading phone company (or phone monopoly in the case non-EU nations).
The big American international search engines are usually found somewhere below the top, but because of their presence in many countries, they can show impressive reach on a European scale. There is however no such thing as a European market. Do not believe people who tell you otherwise. There are 40 different national markets in Europe, so reaching their populations can generally not be achieved through international engines at this time. That can only be done locally. It is important to remember that only 28% of all Europeans and 32% of the surfers understand English at all. Communicating with them in their own language is therefore a must.
Here are the search engines and directories that you cannot do without if you want to reach the Europeans. The links point to the discussion thread for each, which contain more details:
Austria [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Belarus [webmasterworld.com]
SE: All.by
DIR: Akavita
Belgium [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Bosnia-Herzegovina [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Bulgaria [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Eurosoft
DIR: Dir.bg (62% of market)
Croatia [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Cross
DIR:WWW.HR
Czech Republic [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Cyprus [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Arachne!
DIR: Insufficient data
Denmark [webmasterworld.com]
SE: MSN, Kvasir (Fast)
DIR: Jubii (50% of market) Domain and language required.
Estonia [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Finland [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Sonera, Jippii
DIR: Sonera
France [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Voila Language required.
DIR: Yahoo France
Germany
SE: [webmasterworld.com] Infoseek, Lycos, AltaVista. Language required.
DIR: [webmasterworld.com] Web.de, Yahoo Deutschland Language required.
Greece [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Robby
DIR: In.gr
Hungary [webmasterworld.com]
SE: AltaVizsla
DIR: AltaVizsla
Iceland [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Ireland [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Doras.ie
DIR: ?
Italy [webmasterworld.com]
SE: MSN Italia, Lycos Italia
DIR: Virgilio. Language required.
Latvia [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Lithuania [webmasterworld.com]
SE: KTU
DIR: Lithuania Online
Luxemburg [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Malta [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Netherlands [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Ilse. Language and Dutch ownership required.
DIR: Pagina. Language required.
Norway [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Kvasir (Fast)
DIR: No data
Poland [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Onet (60% of market) Language and domain required.
DIR: Wirtualna Polska Language required.
Portugal [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Romania [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Edison
DIR: Insufficient data
Russia [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Yandex (37% of market) Language required.
DIR: Rambler, TopList (each w 15-16% of market.)
Slovakia [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Slovenia [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Slovista
DIR: Eon, Mat'Kurja, SloWWWenia
Spain [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Sweden [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Altavista, MSN, Evreka
DIR: Yahoo Sverige
Switzerland [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
Turkey [webmasterworld.com]
SE: Evreka (?)
DIR: TurkNet (?)
Ukraine [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
United Kingdom [webmasterworld.com]
SE: MSN UK, Freeserve, AOL, Virgin.net
DIR: Yahoo UK, The UK Directory
Yugoslavia [webmasterworld.com]
Insufficient data
A big THANK YOU to all those who have contributed to this forum. Keep it coming! We have big holes in our knowledge about half of Europe's countries and lots of details that need to be filled in for the rest. This project will take at least another year, before we can switch to updating mode. The next quarterly report will be published during the second half of April 2001.
Do you want to add to this report or feel that it should be changed? Post right here or in the discussion for the country concerned.
Jan
Edited by: rencke
ähem -
so, rencke, could it be that Iīll get a six-pack from you because T-Online switches first next year? Or will you get the sixpack due to the early announcement of T-Online?
When I am asked about which SE I would recommend for a promotion, I always say -doesnīt matter which country- Google and FAST, too. So Iīd suggest that for almost all countries these two SEs are as important as the SEs mentioned above.
May be in countries where thatīs the correct proceeding these SEs should be put in parentheses among the others.
>Google and Fast.
Fast is already pretty well covered, since they provde the index for sveral major local engines. But I guess the time may have come to include Google too in the fortcoming 3rd quarterly report, if they make it into the top 10 in at least some of the major European countries. Wll keep my eyes open.
Iīd say, if you look at visitors which go to google directly itīs not as big as we think - but as backup-engine at yahoo (and that worldwide) itīs not possible to ignore it even if the numbers of pageimpressions are not that high.
Have a (german) look at this [wuv.de]. In the article is mentioned that Google is the # 1 regarding to its pageimpressions. I assume thatīs right if the pi of Yahoogle is count for Google. (a research of netvalue - okay strange numbers, no sign of fireball, lycos...)
Yes. Look at this from Netvalue's own site:
[de.netvalue.com...]
Supposedly the numbers that the article was based on. No sign of Google. Can you figure this out?
Attention all readers: This discussion was actually continued here [webmasterworld.com] on April 23rd and the overview in the first post above was updated in that thread, but not here.
Rencke, keep an eye on Opasia.dk (TDC) as Google have replaced Altavista.
If Google's increasing popularity is rubbing off on Opasia, they will suddenly have an interesting answer to Jubii's dominans.
FAKDIS Danish week stats [netposten.dk]
last few weeks the numbers have been fuzzy
