Which SEs as a reference?

for research of competition

[Tapolyai]

I am running some research on keyword competition.
Would Google, Lycos, Open Directory, Overture, and Yahoo be sufficient to find the "major" players in a key phrase?

If so how would you weight these SEs? i.e. would a #1 rank in OPD is not as good as a #2 in Overture?

[Brett_Tabke]

That sounds about right. I would add AllTheWeb in there to get a bit more Euro'centric viewpoint.

[Robert Charlton]

For quick comparisons, I sometimes just use Ixquick and MetaEureka (for a meta-search overview), along with Google.

[Craig_F]

I too was wondering about the weighting of SE's as far as referrals go. My original post is at [webmasterworld.com...]

Basically, I am trying to find which engines referred the most traffic in 2001. Any one know?

thanks - Craig

[pete]

Craig, some external references which may help

Media Metrix's Top 50 web properties [jmm.com]

Top 9 [top9.com]

[jlackey]

For my networking site, here is what I have seen in terms of SE traffic:
1. Google -75%
2. Yahoo - 20%
3. MSN -4%
4. Alta Vista - 1%

I am amazed at what a monster Google has become.