What’s new in the world of search engines? Over the past year, as I checked Google analytics reports for clients’ websites, I noticed that Google is by far still the most popular search engine. Other search engines sending traffic consistently were Bing and Yahoo. Bing is steadily gaining more search traffic than Yahoo. DuckDuckGo is starting to show up in our GA source reports regularly as well.
Top Search Engines in the World
Google still garners most of the world’s search traffic, followed by the Chinese search engine Baidu, Bing and then Yahoo. Here’s a list of the top 10 search engines for 2018 according to ReliableSoft.net:
1. Google
2. Bing
3. Yahoo
4. Ask
5. AOL
6. Baidu
7. Wolframalpha
8. DuckDuckGo
9. Internet Archive
10. Yandex.ru
Search engine DuckDuckGo is making a stronger showing now amidst privacy concerns for internet users. DuckDuckGo just celebrated their 10th anniversary and averages 24 million searches a day. They have evolved from just being a search engine to being a company that helps protect users privacy across the internet.
Mobile Vs. Desktop Searches
Mobile searches are becoming the main way that people search. Mobile devices account for about 70% of searches on average now versus desktop computers. People are looking
Personalization Influences Search Results
Search engine results are changed by personalization. Your results can be different where you are versus for someone on the other side of the country. Factors that affect personalization include:
- IP Location – desktop computers
- GPS Location – mobile devices
- Reported Location
- Search History – for signed in users or from cookies
- Social Networks
- Type of Device – Mobile, TV, Desktop
- Language
- Past Search History
The web user should decide which search engine suits their needs the best. Don’t just accept the default in your browser or device. See an article here about how to change your default search engine. In my next post, I’ll look into how search engines are used for voice searches.
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