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Where Do People Search?
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You can search for web sites at many places. Literally thousands of sites, in fact provide the ability to search the web. (What you may not realize, however, is that all these sites search only a small subset of the World Wide Web.)
However, most searches are carried out at just a small number of search sites.
How do the world’s most popular search sites rank? That depends on how you measure popularity: the percentage of Internet users who visit a site (audience reach); the total number of visitors; the total number of searches carried out at a site; or the total number of hours that visitors spend searching at the site.
Each measurement provides a slightly different ranking, though all provide a similar picture, with the same sites appearing on the list, though some in slightly different positions.
The following list runs down the world’s most popular search sites, based on the total search hours at each site during a one-month period, as compiled in 2003 Nielsen/NetRatings study:
Google.com |
18,700,000 hours |
AOL.com |
15,500,500 hours |
Yahoo.com |
7,100,000 hours |
MSN.com |
5,400,000 hours |
AskJeeves.com |
2,300,000 hours |
InfoSpace.com |
1,100,000 hours |
AltaVista.com |
800,000 hours |
Overture.com |
800,000 hours |
Netscape.com |
700,000 hours |
EarthLink.com |
400,000 hours |
LookSmart.com |
200,000 hours |
Lycos.com |
200,000 hours |
Remember, this is a list of search sites, not search systems. In some cases, the sites have own their own systems. Google provides its own search results, but AOL does not (AOL gets its results from Google).
The fact that some sites get results from other search systems means two things. First, the number in the preceding list are somewhat misleading. They suggest that Google has around a third of all Search hours. But Google also feeds AOL its results – add AOL’s hours to Google’s, and you’ve got almost two thirds of of all search hours. Clearly the Google search system also feeds more systems on this list, and many smaller sites that don’t appear on this list. Some estimates put Google’s share of the Web’s search results as high as 75 or 80 percent.
The second thing to understand is that you can ignore some of these systems. At present, for example, and for the foreseeable future, you don’t need to worry about AOL.com. Even though it’s probably the world’s second most important search site, you can forget about it. Sure, keep it in the back of your mind, but as long as you remember that Google feeds AOL, you need to worry about Google only.
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Over the last decade, a number of popular ideas about what makes a successfull Web site have been bandied around, and all were wrong to some degree. Here are some of those Secrets to successful Web sites:
Links: When the Web began booming in 1994, it was all about links. You would hear in the press that the secret to a successful Web site was linking to other sites.
Cool: Then people started saying that the secret of success was to make your site cool. Cool sites were more entertaining and more likely to attract repeat visitors.
Community: Then people started talking about community; yeah, that's right, that's the secret! The secret to a successful Web site was creating a community where people would meet and chat with each other.
Content: Then, around 2000, people discovered that the secret was content. By putting more stuff, particulary textual information, on your site, you could be more successful.
The real secret is...
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