We all know that Google has a solid lock on the Internet search market, at least from an end-user point of view. But not everyone knows the other major players. At this time it looks like Yahoo!, Windows Live, and Ask also need to be considered, especially in any search engine optimization project. Google stands alone at the top because of it’s strong user base, but don’t forget it also drives the back-end of many other sites, most notably AOL, Earthlink, and AT&T.
Yahoo! is the next nearest competitor to Google in the search market. According to Comscore at the end of 2007, Yahoo! accounted for about 22.9% of all internet searches (compared to 58.4% for Google). Windows Live and Ask probably rank right behind in the vicinity of 10%. But Windows Live is agressively growing it’s user base; and ASK probably has some of the most interesting search technology. Most solid search optimization efforts are probably fairly safe in focusing on these four important search engines.
Filed under: Advertising, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines | Tagged: Ask, Google, Microsoft Live, search, search engine marketing, Search Engines, Yahoo
