The First Place (”Win”) winner in our Essay Competition is Michael Hussey, CEO of Search Engine PeekYou.

Google and Yahoo currently have a stranglehold (75%) on the search market for one simple reason – for the past six or seven years they have offered users the most relevant search results. Through long-term success these two have achieved mindshare, thus significant path dependencies exist within their core user base. MSN, AOL, and Ask, own the next 20% of market share. This means that 95 out of every 100 Internet searches are owned by five companies (actually four companies, if you consider that AOL now displays Google results). This exercise asks us to consider the remaining 5% of alternative search engines as being one general entity and we are tasked with increasing the Alt’s market share to 7% or beyond.

Nearly every alt engine has its own unique quirks, positive or negative, and a considerable number of these engines do indeed offer quality of output that rivals most any search result from the major 95% market share holders. Yet most Internet users have never heard of nearly any of them. Before making direct suggestions on how to compete by creating a better search experience, it is more important to consider the products that already exist in the alt search market, and understand what drives the 95% of search users to the big five engines.

Consider the three second-tier search engines, MSN, AOL, and Ask.com. MSN has the benefit of being Internet Explorer’s default homepage (used by more than 70% of Internet users), and they’ve spent many millions working on their search technology to catch up to Google, but it clearly isn’t there yet in terms of quality. AOL has the benefit being the country’s largest ISP, therefore able to place its homepage in front of millions of people every day – but they do not offer links to Google’s advanced tools (which require a Google login). Ask.com is a well-funded company with a simple domain name that continues to spend millions of dollars driving traffic, and though their search results have improved over the years, the results are still not yet generally considered superior to Google or Yahoo. The obvious question is why would 20% of the market utilize inferior search services? The answer is likely that less sophisticated users make up a greater percentage of this 20% than Google’s and Yahoo’s user base.

For more evidence of this, cross-reference Quantcast.com’s demographic information. It indicates that Google and Yahoo attract a larger percentage of users in the 18-34 age group (the most Internet-savvy age group), generally coming from higher income households.

http://www.quantcast.com/google.com
http://www.quantcast.com/yahoo.com
http://www.quantcast.com/aol.com
http://www.quantcast.com/msn.com
http://www.quantcast.com/ask.com

There are two reasons why the quickest path to increasing market share is to focus marketing and education efforts on the demographics which make up 20% owned by the second-tier search engines. First, these users are likely newer to the Internet, and more open to trying new ways of surfing. Second, it is easier to demonstrate higher quality search results from an alt-engine over the second-tier engines, rather than Google and Yahoo, whose users are affected by stronger path-dependencies.

To attract this new audience, marketing materials must focus on how your alt-engine makes life easier and improves the online search experience; how it provides quicker and more accurate information, thus creating a more comfortable online experience.

Much can be learned from Ask.com’s growth over the page five years. Previous to their disastrous 2007 marketing campaign (“The Algorithm Killed Jeeves”), emphasizing simplicity and user-friendliness was precisely their approach. Ask created effective television commercials that in effect spoke the following message: “Go to Ask.com – type in any question in the world – and we’ll give you the answer.”

Remember, before your alt-engine acquires a Yahoo-sized market share, it has to first get an Ask.com and MSN sized percentage. Grab the users at the margin first – and then go for the big time.

-Michael Hussey CEO, PeekYou.com

The Runner-Up (”Place”) is Kevin Makice.

Traditionally, search engines have been constructed from a data perspective, not a user one. The focus is on making meaning out of a mass of information, stacking items in reasonable ways for the people waiting to find them. Those people are passers-by, a stream of gawkers clamoring to get a look at the resource engineers have built. Utilitarian by nature, the user experience is one of isolation and self-service.

When person decides to search for knowledge, she is motivated to do so by specific questions in need of answers. The user does not see, nor want to see stacks of data. She does not wish to rely on educating herself about the engineered structure. The user wants to see the answers, presented as limited but reliable choices that quickly address the motivation for her search. Even if deeper options are provided, she will scan, prune and ignore to manufacture that simplicity.

The search engine is the means to an experience, not the experience itself. Searching for an answer is embedded into everything we do, but access to a specific search engine may not be an easy matter in every situation. Understand how search flows through the lives of the user, and bring the engine to the person instead of forcing the inverse. The documents are a means to an answer, not the answer itself. Not all answers need to be definitive, but all must address the searcher’s motivating need for that information. Answers may come in the form of an indexed page, but they also may materialize by sharing how others view that page.

Make a floor but understand what they need when they dance on the ceiling.

In Third Place (”Show”) is Khody Azmoon

On one end of the spectrum you have five major search engines who own 95% of the 100 billion dollar a year online search market (Google.com, Yahoo.com, Microsoft.com, AOL.com, & Ask.com). On the other end of the spectrum you have about 100 alternative search engines that control the other 5% of the market. So, what can the alternative search engines do to increase their market share? There is no definitive answer other than to continue to focus on those niche markets. The five percent they have is technically a huge market as is, but as soon as any of the niche markets hit mainstream, the bigger players will move in. Whether it is with a buyout or they create their own, there is a good chance they will push out the little players. More importantly, the landscape of search has literally changed right in front of our eyes. Before, online search consisted of primarily two factors, speed and simplicity. Today the model is speed, simplicity, and services. More and more of the major search engines are offering free services that are aiding them in their efforts to maintain their large market shares. This will make it harder and harder for alternative search engines to increase their market share, but not impossible and Youtube.com is a great example of the alternative success.

Either way, the alternative search engines should continue to focus on enhancing their team first, than their product, and finally marketing. By enhancing their team, they increase the chances of a buyout by one of the bigger players. If they can merge with current alternative competitor to enhance the team, then that is a long term win. If the merger is that of just market share, then all you have is a short term gain whose momentum will most likely fade away to better team. Even though I keep putting emphasis on a better team, the idea behind a better team should lead to a better product and better marketing, which should lead to a better outcome.

And finally, trailing the pack, is David Berkowitz…

“I’d tell 90% of them to fold. Okay, it wouldn’t win them market share, but it would save them some time.”

Please leave us your feedback on one or all three of these essays!

Editor’s note: PeekYou is a spopnsor of AltSearchEngines.

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