Search Engines

Now that the Big 5 of Search have all released thier lists of top searches for 2006, let's take a look at the results - and what they say about the users of each search engine.

Google's top ten shows a definite bias toward technology-related searches, with social networking players Bebo and MySpace leading the pack.  The only non-tech searches on the list, "World Cup" and "Rebelde" (a Mexican television series), are suggestive of a strong international user base, since we'd expect both soccer and Mexican TV to have stronger fan bases outside the United States. Bebo, at number 1, is also strong internationally.

1. Bebo
2. MySpace
3. World Cup
4. Metacafe
5. Radioblog
6. Wikipedia
7. Video
8. Rebelde
9. Mininova
10. Wiki

via www.google.com/press/zeitgeist2006.html

In contrast to Google's tech and international bias, Yahoo's top ten reads like a who's who of American pop culture. Not a single tech term made it onto the list. Considering the heavy emphasis on female sex symbols, it would be interesting to see how many of these searches were made from work versus home.

1. Britney Spears
2. WWE
3. Shakira
4. Jessica Simpson
5. Paris Hilton
6. American Idol
7. Beyonce Knowles
8. Chris Brown
9. Pamela Anderson
10. Lindsay Lohan

via buzz.yahoo.com/topsearches2006/lists/

Windows Live's top ten shares more in common with Yahoo than Google, though the number one showing of Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho and another appearance by Rebelde indicates a strong international audience. Still, lots of young starlets on the list, though Live users seem to favor Shakira and Paris over Britney.

1. Ronaldinho
2. Shakira
3. Paris Hilton
4. Britney Spears
5. Harry Potter
6. Eminem
7. Pamela Anderson
8. Hilary Duff
9. Rebelde
10. Angelina Jolie

via blogs.msdn.com/...live-search-for-2006.aspx

AOL's results are predictably skewed by their generally older, less tech-savvy users. General searches like "weather" and "maps" are no doubt popular uses of the web, but more experienced users probably already have favorite sites for such purposes and don't need to search for them. The only real surprise on this list is "Tattoo".  Not sure what to make of that one - maybe regretful baby boomers looking for "tattoo removal"?

1. Weather
2. Dictionary
3. Dogs
4. American Idol
5. Maps
6. Cars
7. Games
8. Tattoo
9. Horoscopes
10. Lyrics

via about-search.aol.com/hotsearches2006/index.html

Lot's of general searches made it onto Ask's list as well.  Half of their top ten also appear on AOL's, so perhaps their users share a lot in common (except for the tattoos).  American Idol came in at number 10, making it the only search term to appear on 3 of the 5 lists.

1. MySpace
2. Dictionary
3. Games
4. Cars
5. Food
6. Song Lyrics
7. Poems
8. Baby Names
9. Music
10. American Idol

via about.ask.com/en/docs/iq/iq.shtml

While it's interesting to see how the top searches differ across the major search engines, it's also useful information for advertisers. When you're deciding which PPC networks to run ads on, it's important to keep in mind the user bases of the web sites displaying your ads. Yahoo and Live seem like good places to advertise your new gossip blog, while Google might be a better choice if your product or service appeals to the geek crowd. And, apparently, AOL would be the natural place to promote your tattoo shop.

Has anyone out there seen Rebelde? I'll confess I'd never heard of it before seeing it pop up on the top ten for Google and Live. Am I missing some great Mexican TV?

Aside from the obvious privacy angle on AOL's recent release of the search records from 650,000 of its customers, some interesting data has begun to surface from those brave souls willing to sift through the 17+ million searches.

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article today detailing some of the trends found in that data.  Among the most interesting points:

• The top ten words searched for were:
  1. free
  2. new
  3. lyrics
  4. county
  5. school
  6. city
  7. home
  8. state
  9. pictures
  10. music
• In 47% of all searches, users did not click on any of the links presented to them
• When users did click on a search result, they choose the first site listed 42% of the time

When considering this data, it's important to keep in mind that it contains only the search records of AOL users, so this shouldn't be expected to represent the search habits of more technically adept users. It does give some insights into the search behavior of a great many users, though, and it's worth paying attention to. 

Most notable is the importance of ranking in the number one spot for a given search term. With 42% of clicks going to the top result, it's obvious that there's a huge difference in traffic between simply being on the first page of results and gaining that number one spot. The number 10 listing might still get decent traffic for a common search phrase, but for less common niches number one is the only place to be.