Google ups market share by default not popularity
Most people have seen this image before.
Is this a young lady or an old woman? The answer is
both, it just depends, literally, on how you look at it.
Now check out these Hitwise stats for Feb / Mar 2008:
Did Google increase their market share during that time period? Yes, from 66.44% to 67.25%. But no, Google did not necessarily increase in popularity! Yahoo’s market share went down; some people gave up on Yahoo! MSN’s share went down also. Ask shrank as well, from 4.16% to 4.09%. Even the Alt search engines decreased, from 1.86% to 1.72% (combined).
So didn’t more people switch to Google; from 66.44% to 67.25%? Yes - and no. Given these four choices and too many (or too unknown) Alt search engines, people that were dissatisfied with Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask switched to Google because they perceived that there was no other place to go!
Google is not really growing in popularity, that’s the illusion. It’s as deceptive as the image up above.
The reality is that all of the other options are losing users. This is precisely why AltSearchEngines has decided to enter the “Next-Gen Search” competition. If users had a decent choice for Search, Google’s numbers would not necessarily continue to go up while the others continue to lose users.
In fact, current Google users who get frustrated - but have no better place to go - would flock to this new site as well. This is a void just waiting to be filled, and even though the Alts lost ground this month as well, that is where we should be looking for the answers. If they can’t figure it out, who can?
Comments?
June 21st, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I see the young girl, but not the old lady. What is the void? What is the frustration? I don’t think people are actually frustrated by search.
Nobody know their old phone was insufficient until the iPhone came along. Like the iPhone, search users won’t even know there’s anything wrong with the old model until they experience something better.
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:26 am
The only people who are frustrated with Google are their competitors. They’re so attached to their creations that they don’t realize their solution is just a one trick pony that doesn’t scale (in many senses). Google is not perfect in the sense that you cannot have perfect search engine unless you solved the hard AI problem, which remain unsolved and will remain unsolved for foreseeable future. None of the alt se people have demonstrated their competence or potential yet. This is coming from someone who has built multiple search engines. I do look forward to real innovations in the field (including the ones from G). But I’ve yet to see one.