Google VS MSN and Yahoo

Google more popular but less effective

[dailypress]

I personally prefer the MSN search results however, use Google more often! I find it interesting why people think Google will give them better results!

I was wondering which search engine you guys prefer and also do you agree that Google shows much more spammy websites in their SERPs compared to MSN or other search engines?

Google tends to show more spam websites! Exp. Do a search on YourDomain.com using both MSN and Google and you’ll know what Im talking about.

[edd1]

I don't think it's anything to do with them showing more spammy websites, I think it's the fact that spammy websites optimise for G and constantly look for ways to beat the algo. They would optimise for whoever has the traffic flow.

I think Google is the leader in search by light years. Nobody else wants to do it the way they do. People like the clear white page with minimal text and a simple box in the middle of the page. It shows a commitment to simple usability and quality of search results even if those of us who see under the surface doubt that commitment is anywhere near what it once was.

[Bewenched]

I get much better conversions from visitors that come from MSN or live.com

[Wlauzon]

Same here. We get about 5-8% of our hits from MSN but the conversion rate and sales is 12-15%.

[Whitey]

It's also important to note that Google is not dominant in every country. But as a US / English language centric source of large traffic volumes, working with the other search engines may be less productive [ effort to outputs ].

[dailypress]

edd1: good point. I never thought if it that way!
I used to get alot of traffic from Google (over 6K/day).
Unfortunately that has decreased to a few hundred.

For the past year I realized: My website shows up for many great keywords on MSN but not for Google. If it did, I would probably retire.

[BoomCommerce]

I think this is not a matter of the MSN algorithm somehow creating better customers. I've always suspected that all of MSN's success comes as a result of MSN.com.

MSN.com is the defacto default page on the net. The correlation can be made is that someone who is using the IE default of MSN.com is older, probably makes more money and is less computer savvy than a Google or Yahoo user.

This being the case, they are more likely to know what they want, more likely to have the money to buy it and too unknowledgeable to shop around.

Every metric I've ever measured from MSN has told me this. But despite my good rankings, I don't even get a tenth of my traffic from MSN.

[WiseWebDude]

I use:

Google: for fast, relevant, easy to read results
MSN: for double-checking Google
Yahoo: for a really good, hearty laugh