Unlike in the past, most of us have a rough idea of what search engines are, rightly so based on the current fast growth of the internet. Well, some people only know Google because it is one of the most popular. However, other tools can as well help you navigate the world of the internet.
The quick and effective retrieval of information from the internet only became possible in 1990. It was only then that search engines began popping up everywhere until Google took the crown. Regardless, other, less popular search engines have their audiences. We discuss the top 5 search engines in the world in the order of their market share.
1. Google
Google needs no further introductions as it is the undisputed king of the search engines. Did you know that Google started as a research project by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in 1996? Did you also know that they offered to sell the tool for $750,000 to Excite in 1999?
As you already guess, the offer was rejected. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is now worth around a whopping $650 billion. If that is not an example of a bad business call, then what is?
Numbers don’t lie. According to figures from Statista and net market share, Google is the dominant force in all the countries on any device, be it a tablet, mobile, or desktop. The search engine serves around 79 billion people every month.
Google’s most significant popularity is in the US, India, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and France.
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But how did that happen?
Google rose to the top riding on the back of its quality search results. The search engine giant employs sophisticated algorithms to display the most accurate results. Typically, Sergey Brin and Larry Page came up with an idea of determining websites’ importance based on referencing by other websites to rank.
Over the years, Google’s ranking formula has improved thanks to machine learning and other factors. As a result, the quality of its search results remains high, and most reliable. Google’s most significant appeal is its massive traffic potential, no doubt.
The obvious downside is its organic search competitiveness. Paid search is a bit more expensive compared to the other search engines. Well, there are also claims that Google is slowly drifting away from organic results to increases in paid search results and snippets.
2. Microsoft Bing
Before October 2020, Microsoft Bing was just Bing. Typically, Microsoft Bing is the second-best search engine and the best alternative to Google. Released in 2009, Bing is one of the oldest search engines in the world.
At the launch, Bing enjoyed a search market share of 8.4% and quickly crossed the 28% barrier with a deal to power Yahoo search. In 2016, AOL joined the fray and somehow contributed to making Microsoft Bing a real contender.
Microsoft Bing was an attempt to dethrone Google, but Microsoft could not sufficiently convince the market that they could be as reliable as Google. According to the latest data by Microsoft, Bing is now powering 33% of US searches.
Bing is the default search engine in Microsoft devices, but that does not even scratch the surface when compared to Google – well, just a little. Lately, Microsoft Bing has been making a lot of plays in the ad space to catch up. Some of the reported improvements include better keyword match changes.
Bing is the offspring of Windows Live Search, MSN Search, and Live Search. The search engine is popular in China, Japan, the United States, Germany, and France. Microsoft Bing’s algorithms are easy to understand and optimize.
3. Yahoo
With an average of 1% market share, Yahoo is the third most popular search engine. This search engine is powered exclusively by Bing, and so their search results are similar. In the United States, yahoo is the default search engine for Firefox users.
Yahoo search is popular in the United States and elsewhere, such as Taiwan, Brazil, India, and the UK.
4. Baidu
With a global market share of between 0.68% and 11.26%, Baidu is undoubtedly a top five search engine in the world. Baidu is most prevalent in China, and its market share has been growing steadily since its inception in 2000.
The Chinese search engine makes huge investments into artificial intelligence. It is setting the standard the other search engines will have to contend with.
The search engine serves billions of search queries every month, and Alexa rankings put it at number four. With more than 74% of the Chinese market, Baidu is the country’s absolute dominant force. Google only manages about 2% of the search engine market in China.
Apart from China, the search engine is popular in the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Republic of Korea.
You can access Baidu from anywhere globally, but it is only available in the Chinese language. The advantage is that Baidu can give you access to a vast Chinese market. But accessing the market is not as easy as it seems. It would be best if you had someone on the staff that speaks Chinese and understands their culture.
5. Yandex.ru
It would be unusual for the Russians to be left behind in anything technology. And as expected, Russians have their own popular search engine, and it is Yandex.
Alexa ranks Yandex as among the 30 most popular websites at the moment. It ranks fourth in Russia.
Yandex.ru has an enormous market share of about 65% in Russia. Up to 92% of the monthly visitors are from the country. But apart from Russia, Yandex is also popular in China, Ukraine, Belarus, and Germany.
The firm presents itself as a technology organization that relies on machine learning to design intelligent products and services. Of course, the traffic may be low at the moment, but that has its advantages as well.
The algorithms are easy to understand, and the competition in paid and organic is low. Yandex’s paid system is less expensive in comparison to Facebook and Google. Unfortunately, Yandex has a high weighting on geolocation, making it a bit hard for outsiders. It is surprising for you what is duckduckgo look into detail.
