Google: Up, Up & Away

Posted by Upright Team

Did use of the verb “Googling” cement your switch from Yahoo (or Altavista), back in 2002? Or are you proudly using a “mix” of search engines, showing no loyalty to one over the other?

If you show no preference to one search engine today, the New York Times is surprised. The Times, along with many other publications, is turning up their coverage on the search engine giant…and collars are tightening. This is because Google’s meteoric rise is shooting towards the M-word: monopoly. We can hypothesize about what that means for SEO, but I’d rather figure out why people are abandoning other search engines.

Here are the latest usage stats, according to the article:

Google 63% (up from 36.5 in 2005)
Yahoo 21% (down from 30.5 in 2005)
MSN 5.4%

Looks like the cards have been dealt, eh?! Well I decided to find out ‘why people prefer Google’ by typing in that bolded phrase into all three search engines. I hoped my results would be telling. Here’s the breakdown of search results that I considered at all relevant to my topic:

Google: 3/10
Yahoo: 4/10
MSN: 4/10

Disappointing…and Google has been de-throned! But not so fast– there were some great user-generated answers (especially at Yahoo! Answers, ironically enough). The most popular:

1) “Google” is recognized as a verb by Merriam-Webster. It is ‘synonymous with search.’
2) Google’s interface is clean/white. When a Ford Flex is zooms across your screen (ahem, Yahoo) before you even type your query, who can stay focused?

Also, people clearly view Google’s search results to be most accurate. This could be placebo for most users, but it is a strong argument in serious tech-industry circles. Google has a great product, with very user-friendly side features like Gmail. I personally do not like the word “yahoo” and view MSN as a businessy combo of Microsoft and MSNBC– not very versatile. You might disagree, and variety is good. Quickly dropping its monopoly witch-hunt, the article assures readers to continue using whichever search engine(s) they enjoy.

But how come no one ever mentions Ask.com? I like that one–sometimes I just can’t phrase questions any other way.