According to the Nielsen//Netratings report, the top search engines by share for November, 2005 were:

• Google Search (46.3% of searches)
  
• Yahoo! Search (23.5% of searches)
  
• MSN Search (11.4% of searches)
  
• AOL Search (6.9% of searches)
  
• My Way Search (2.5% of searches)
  
• Ask Jeeves Search (2.3% of searches)
  

A total of 5.1 billion searches were performed in November, 2005. Google, Yahoo!, and MSN remain the top 3 search engines as measured by share, with Google still dominating in this category. The study reports that both the total number of searches conducted and the relative positions of the top 5 search engine leaders have not changed in the last month.

More interesting than the top performing engines by share are the results of the top search terms typed into the engines in the United States. The study shows that most people use search engines to find even well known websites, like ebay.com, google.com, or yahoo.com. Take a look at the top 10 search terms typed into search engines in November, 2005:

ebay, google, yahoo, mapquest, yahoo.com, pogo.com, walmart, ask jeeves, msn, ebay.com

These search terms demonstrate that most internet users prefer to use a search engine rather than simply type common website domains that they already know into a web browser address bar. This behavior might be attributable to simple habit, or it might just be a preferred way to navigate the internet for most users. (Personally, I usually make use of the address bar for domains that I already know). The first search term on the list that is not a common domain is the word "weather", which appears at position 22.

Whatever the reasons may be for using search engines to "find" known domains, this behavior is good news for search engines: it means an increased number of page views and potential advertising revenue. It also indicates that internet users are becoming very accustomed to using search engines, and will very likely continue to use them as their preferred method of internet navigation in the future.

The widespread use of search engines by internet users underscores the importance of maintaining good search engine visibility for your website for search terms of interest to you. A search engine optimization tool like WebPosition 4 can help you improve and easily monitor your search engine visibility.

                 ← What is this?