Some big players are lying

Put the marketing boys up against the wall...

[Receptional]

Here are some figures...

Observation 1:
From the Google IPO watch thread and [siliconvalley.com...]

Google does 200 million searches per day and accounts for 75% of all search engine results

(well - I am just reading, not auditing) making a total of 265 million visitors from search per day

Observation 3
[searchenginewatch.com...] says

For January 2003, there were an estimated 134 million active at home and at work internet users in the US.

That means that the average user uses search 60s times per month.... I don't think so!?!

Do you think so? If not, who's lying?

[seth_wilde]

The first figure is talking about global search and the second figure is talking about just US internet users.. apples and oranges....

[edit_g]

Google does 200 million searches per day and accounts for 75% of all search engine results

You may be trying to compare global and local US figures. The first (75%, 200 million) is global.

<edit>I type too slow</edit>

[Marketing Guy]

I would say there isn't such a thing as an average user.

I search a lot each day - most of the people here search more than me no doubt.

A lot of people wont even know how to use a search engine or will not use one that frequently. For example Wordtraker used to show (havent used it in a while) complete URLs as top keywords (google, hotmail, msn) which suggests a low level of knowledge from users.

Plus a user may conduct many searches before they find what they want.

Therefore any stats may be interesting but not really hard factual evidence.

And I dont think anyone is lying - they may be mistaken or guessing based on samples, but not lying.

Scott

[shasan]

Yeah, it's people like me who probably do sixty searches per DAY on the darned thing that will send that 'average' of yours soaring.

Coupling that with the global vs. local point, (I think there are around 780 million internet users in the world), and I'd say the figures are pretty much bang on.

One thing that does catch my eye though is the 75% thing... on Wordtracker (and they may be talking about something else), they say Google accounts for about 35% of search engine traffic... Is there a distinction between traffic and searches? I would think the two are related and directly proportional.

Cheers,
shasan.

[peewhy]

There is another side to this coin.

If the search engines were good, we'd do less searches.

[shasan]

LOL - touche mon ami ;)

Why can't they just KNOW what I'm thinking about? Hook it up to brain already.

Cheers.
shasan.

[le_gber]

One thing that does catch my eye though is the 75% thing... on Wordtracker (and they may be talking about something else), they say Google accounts for about 35% of search engine traffic... Is there a distinction between traffic and searches? I would think the two are related and directly proportional.

May be the current google partners - AOL, Hotbot, IWON, etc - are not included in the 35%.

Leo

[peewhy]

The trouble is, these are stats and it all depends on who did them. We can look at them in so many different ways and get so many different results.

It also depends on what you are looking for:)

[Receptional]

Probably correct about the Global vs Local thing, but I assumed Google was talking locally because of the 75% claim. I doubted they had 75% reach worldwide, but maybe they do. Our figures for a busy UK based site suggest Wordtracker's percentage of 35%, whilst proobbaly the other side of the truth, is closer to the mark, not least because I see much more than the remaining 25% coming from MSN (on sites that have the money at least).

Sadly we know in our heart of hearts that 98% of web users are using Internet Explorer and probably half of these never changed the default home page from MSN.country.com.

So MSN probably has lots of searches.

[agerhart]

98% of web users are using Internet Explorer and probably half of these never changed the default home page from MSN.country.com

I definitely believe that there is alot of truth to this, but I think the percentage is much lower and continuously declining.

[dragonlady7]

98% of web users are using Internet Explorer and probably half of these never changed the default home page from MSN.country.com

*raises hand* I often do that when I have a computer. I tend to leave the browser on the default page for a very long time.
I don't use the default page, though.
So I think that number is a tad less significant than they think it is. I have never searched with MSN.com deliberately-- only the auto-redirect when it can't find a website.
I think there are a lot of people at that level of comfort with computers-- advanced enough to know to go to Google to search, but not comfortable enough (or just too lazy) to actually change their home page from MSN.com to Google.com. I've been using Safari for 3 months now I think and still haven't gotten around to changing the home page from netscape.com/apple or whatever it is.
It also takes quite a bit of doing to get someone to download and install a new browser. I tried explaining it to my mom and she just kept asking "why?" She's advanced enough now to use IE instead of just the AOL browser, but she only bothered to figure that out because the AOL browser is so awful. Her home page is probably msn.com, but she knows darn well to search with Google.
*shrug*
Seemed relevant to me to point it out...

[peewhy]

...and why not? its a fact and it alters the stats. These figures will change depending on whether the stats mongers are buying or selling.

[st0n3y]

I'd like to know how many of these searches they are boasting about are actually SEOs and site owners checking their rankings and/or seeing if their URL is included, etc.

[peewhy]

precisely!

Mo one can compare my usage with that of the average user and I make up for a few that have never seen a Google.