The Heavyweights

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft - who ranks the best?

[au_sammy]

If you do a search for "www" on google I see in the SERPS:

1. Yahoo
2. Altavista
3. Microsoft
4. CNN
5. Amazon
6. Adobe
7. Mapquest
8. Google
9. Excite
10. Lycos

So what factors would cause Yahoo to be at the top? I guess it shows that PR helps but is not a decider... Yahoo and others being PR9, Google and Adobe being PR10 ....

What other factors would cause these websites to secure the top position for the term "www"?

[guru5571]

back links

[Pico_Train]

age of site

[Small Website Guy]

The big question is what is Altavista doing up there? Who links there or goes there?

[selomelo]

So what factors would cause Yahoo to be at the top?

A simple analysis:

Backlinks: (according to google)
Yahoo: 978,000
Altavista: 61,600
Microsoft: 153,000
CNN: 157,000
Amazon: 2,610,000
Adobe: 77,900
...
Google: 3,750,000

Number of Citations: (according to google)
Citation:
Yahoo: 365,000,000
Altavista: 13,800,000
Microsoft: 627,000,000
CNN: 68,300,000
Amazon: 242,000,000
Adobe: 430,000,000
...
Google: 662,000,000

Allinurl:www
Yahoo
Altavista
Microsoft
CNN
Amazon
Adobe

Allinanchor:www
Yahoo
microsoft
cnn
amazon
adobe

allintxt:www
xe
opera
barnesandnoble
ssa

Tentative Conclusion: keywords in anchor text and in urls rule, IMHO!