Is Google really #1 SE?

number 1 search engine

[ogletree]

I have seen seveal people say that google is #1 or has 3/4 of the SE hits. Is this true? How do we know. I have a few search terms that are #1 on Yahoo and Google and I get more hits from Yahoo. It seems to me that I get way more hits from Yahoo and AOL. Only tech savy people use Google. Normal People that have AOL, MSN, or whatever ISP advertises the most in there home town don't use Google. They use what ever comes up after they install the ISP software. I want to be listed well in Google but I don't use it. Yahoo seems to work much better for me. Yahoo is my home page becasue I can go there to check my mail, find a map, or play a game if I want to. Our office has Yahoo set up as the default page for everyone.

[jady]

Another addition - this month MSN actually has a Client of ours beat on hits over Google. (A real strange thing to see in stat logs!) This particular site is related in Real Estate in a particular area and gets 1500+ (unique)hits a month from folks looking for homes..

P.S.S. Yahoo Directory = 4 hits... Now talk about a waste..

[glengara]

One doesn't Yahoo or MSN old boy, one Googles!

[Namaste]

Conculsion: Google is significantly in the lead, but Inktomi is hot on it's heals. Others don't count yet.

I think the day Inktomi starts deep and frequent indexing, it's catch-up with Google starts. Should happen soon before the Yahoo switchover to Inktomi power.

[Tony_Perry]

Namaste

I have to disagree with you. We have hundreds oc clients positioned well on many top SE's and still Google comes tops. 88% of all unique come from Google followed by MSN.com

[PatrickDeese]

Thus your log files are not a correct indicator of SE usage.
This is similiar to the classic mistake companies make....

Namaste I posted my stats and also said that my site is #1 for its primary target in altavista.

it is also #2 in ask jeeves.

#2 in MSN results, after the looksmart listings.

In other words, for my site, Google is bringing in the lion's share of search results. YMMV.

I think that many factors might skew the results depending on the theme of your site.

There are times when I purposely use Yahoo directory or ODP when doing research over Google, for things like seeing businesses in a particular region. This is because in many cases, a site for a law firm for instance, may not be terribly optimized, yet it will be listed in the Yahoo directory and/or ODP. In this case, I would want to see a broad selection of law firms, and rather than parse search results, I can see a finite set of results but for that region in particular.

What I am getting at is that if you are selling "widgets", Google might be your best bet, however if you are a law firm in Cedar Falls, IA, it might be that ODP, Yahoo or some law firm web directory gives you more traffic.

[jbauder]

Patrick you make a very good point about MSN when you say "after looksmart" I've got terms that rank well but are buried under 100 looksmart listings and never get seen ...

my April stats are

- MSN 1586
- Google 1559
- Yahoo 1551
- AOL 252
- Ask Jeeves 102

though in fairness I have "slightly" better positions at msn and at yahoo (because they only show 1 listing per site) than at google ...

I think it is clear that google & inktomi are the game and none of the others are worth bothering with ... I also think alot of people are going to get "bit" when / if Yahoo switches to inktomi results