Search Engine Share

I love stats. I love graphs even more, so I thought I would share with you a pictorial view of the share that the major search engines have. These results are from SearchEngineWatch.com which is a great resource for the latest in search engine news.

The comScore Media Metrix qSearch service measures search-specific traffic on the internet. qSearch data is gathered by monitoring the web activities of 1.5 million English-speakers worldwide (1 million in the United States) via proxy metering. Proxy metering allows comScore to see exactly how those within its panel have surfed the web. From this data, the company then extracts activity that's considered to be specifically search-related.

The Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Search reporting service measures the search behavior of approximately 500,000 people worldwide. These web surfers have real-time meters on their computers which monitor the sites they visit. This metered information is compiled to produce NetRatings results.

With nearly 50% of the share, you can see why much of the focus on search engine optimization is tailored to Google. I should also note that there are different demographics that use certain engines. I have worked with several clients where leads from Yahoo! convert better than leads from Google. It's always best to work with your SEO professional to find which engines to optimize for.