Just Search | Search Engine Optimisation & Internet Marketing
Just Search | Search Engine Optimisation & Internet Marketing
If I asked you how many search engines there were, what kind of answer would you give me? Would you say 3? 5? 20? How about hundreds? Obviously there are the big 3, or 2 or 5 depending on who you ask, but there are hundreds of other search engines, that cover almost every possible idea you could have for a search engine. A good resource for tracking these websites is www.altsearchengines.com. It’s worth adding to your RSS reader just so you get an idea of what is happening outside of the mainstream search engines – you can never have enough information.
However, I am not here to talk about all the cool things that these search engine offer and which ones you should look at, because lets face it, we don’t care about what search engines we use, but we do care about what other people, the ones who are going to spend money on your site use to search the internet. So the important question when looking at the importance of a search engine is this: would someone who didn’t care about search use this search engine without any prompting. The answer will almost always be no.
I conducted a straw poll of several people at a BBQ one fine summers eve (not that there are many of them up here in Manchester) not too long ago. I asked a simple question, what search engine do you use? And the answer was either Google or Yahoo, with one person saying that they used the search that comes with the internet, which I found out after a couple of questions, as meaning using live.com in IE7. While this was a quick question that came up as part of explaining what it is that I do as a job, I think that it shows quite a lot really. I think that it mostly shows that the average user is not going to use these other search engines unless they hit the mainstream, and the sites wont hit the mainstream unless people are aware of them. A nice little catch-22. But it all means the same thing – with regards to SEO forget the alternatives, concentrate on the big few.
One word of advice though, don’t ignore these other search engines just because they are irrelevant now, pay attention to them, if any start to make a dent on the public concious and more importantly, Google’s market share, then begin to gear up your efforts towards these sites as well.
James
SEO Programmer
Thanks, James, for mentioning AltSearchEngines. As a former SEO myself, I agree with your observation that, for now, only the big 5 matter for SEO. But you’re also one of the few people to realize that things might not always be the way they are now. AltSearchEngines promotes a change in the status quo, and so we welcome any of your readers who just want to keep an eye on themn!
Charles Knight, editor
AltSearchEngines.com
OK, but you don’t answer your own question, “How many search engines are there?”
rsimon, I think you’ll find that I did say that there are hundreds of search engines. This is about as close a figure as can be given – there is no way to get an exact number. New search engines are popping up all the time, and others are shutting down. Not to mention ones that are in r&d behind closed doors.