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What strikes me is that Google currently has only two other SEs for which it supplies results. This is not to say that Google isn't a powerful force. But its tentacles are not nearly as spread out as Overture's. Look at that Octopus!
Inktomi's reach is a good bit broader than Google's. Fast and Alltheweb look pretty isolated.
Google, of course, will replace Ink at AOL. But, then it may lose Yahoo.
Dazz
I guess it all depends on how you define dominant. Is it the number of portals
that an SE supplies results to, or the number of searches done per unit time on
a given SE, or what?
The approach used by the chart does not comprehend the large number of people
who log in to AOL, and then head straight for google.com to do a search, for
example.
But for what it shows, it's great chart... Now hanging on my wall. Let's hope
they keep it updated!
Jim
The switch has not happened yet.
In March, 2002, Google was tops with almost 13 million search hours. Yahoo! was second at 5.4 million search hours.
This is a good metric to use to compare SEs and directories. You really can't compare unique users because if I use Google 20 times in a given month and use Yahoo once, I still count as one user at both sites. And I don't think the chart referenced here is a good metric, either.
I'd say Google is pretty dominant.
>>>>The switch has not happened yet.
According to the results under my terms, it has. My site is coming up fine. Not exactly the same as Google, but certainly something has happened or I wouldn't be there. I think they are pulling in results; it is just a mixed bag right now.
From my logs Google(s) is predominant; I have a multi-languages website and I get a lot of referrals from google.com and other google sites (.de, .fr etc.).
> This chart is updated on a regular basis...
Looks to me to be very outdated
It's easy to get outdated, things change so often and sometimes so fast. The information in the Major Search Engines [webmasterworld.com] thread started with what was originally on an existing web page that had to be updated every month, practically.
Charts give a good graphical representation, but text is a lot easier and faster to keep updated. The information, both in the text list in the thread here and in the chart, shows who's feeding certain search engines or portals; however, neither gives us the complete picture, because results supplied by search engines and directories are spread out to so many more avenues of exposure than either one represents. So they're of limited use in figuring market share of search engines. Neither one is showing us the actual reach that Google has, which of course will be different depending on location. Asia, Europe and North America will have a different distribution and percentage, and it also depends to a degree on the demographics for any given site.
Google's reach, beyond just their own search engine and the major portal outlets, is so broad it's mind-boggling. The latest up to date list where it's shown is in the Google Dance Card [webmasterworld.com] thread.
A lot of people use their ISP start page routinely for doing their searches, which is probably why Yahoo went into the ISP business, per the recent SBC deal. The ISPs won't show on a chart or list of who's feeding which major search engines or portals, but it can make a big difference - like when sympatico.ca changed, the amount of traffic from FAST changed.
Percentages vary, but putting it all together, Google's far ahead in most cases.
[edited by: Marcia at 6:00 am (utc) on July 16, 2002]
Reasons why despite the chart, google is the dominant deliverer of search engine referrals -
1. Google provide results to an ever increasing number of portals and engines, either primary or secondary - far more than Ov.
2. Google's results are long term (generally!). Overtures only exist as long as you keep paying.
3. When overtures results are tagged as being sponsored clearly on portal sites as the FTC wants, the value of an Overture listing will decrease to some extent.
4. Google has far more traffic to their own site than Overture, which has a relatively miniscule amount of own site hits. (mainly advertisers checking listings)
AOL is showing Google on .com and .co.uk for me. I'm also getting a large number of referrals from AOL. Way more than a few months ago.
Chris.
My website logs tend to confirm this. My site likely is a very good one to check on this. I made a definite effort at SEO, and at the moment I have *great* positions on the key search terms my users will likely use for every search engine of significant usage. (It did help a lot here that my site is so specialized that competition isn't fierce.) I'm definitely seeing Google as the big #1, and Yahoo being about half as many hits as Google. None of the other search engines are close to Google and Yahoo.
Of course that could vary depending on whether there are a lot of directory sites or few for a given search.
I think its a great effort, in fact I posted it here almost a year ago - and at that time, several members jumped out and tagged it as outdated - LOL! And yeah, it seems as with everything else associated with the internet or computers in general, as soon as your almost done with a project, it's already archaic.
Comparing Google to Y!; this is about a normal day for me:
29.38%: google
15.61%: yahoo
The points represent SE referrals, not total visits.
I get a lot of hits from Google, several hundred a day, but for my type of content, I don't feel Google is so dominant because 60% to 70% of my hits come from incoming links, bookmarks and direct paths.
If I was to loose significant PR or even go PRO tomorrow, I would definitely see the loss in traffic, but it probably wouldn't translate significantly in sales conversion loss. Hope I don't get the oppertunity to find out though :)
