Ever thought of the search engines as one big basket you could throw all your eggs into? Think again.
New statistics released in a survey conducted by Hitwise show that the big 4 search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask
Jeeves) have a varied user base in terms of gender, age and affluence. The Hitwise research study also revealed some new information of users search habits.
The fact-filled report also stated that upon leaving search engines, more users went to shopping sites than any other category of internet properties.
Information released by comScore has stated that Google still has the majority search engine share in the USA, but we all sigh together at information that doesn't surprise.
So let gets into the nitty-gritty demographic statistics. When looking at the visitor demographics of the aforementioned search engines for the 4 weeks ending on 16th July, Hitwise research found that;
- 53.6% of Google users were male
- Ask Jeeves users were predominantly female (58.7%)
- Yahoo! and MSN searchers were also predominantly female, collecting 50.2% and 53.7% respectively
Hearty facts. But the statistics don't stop there. Google had the greatest number of visitors with household incomes greater than £55,500 ($100,000), MSN Search had the highest proportion of users older than 55 and Yahoo! was found to have a higher proportion of searchers between the ages of 18 and 34 than Google, MSN or Ask Jeeves.
Hitwise statistics also revealed that most users enter just one or two words into a search engines query box. To be more specific, 87% of search queries at Google, Yahoo! and MSN Search were no more than two words.
The "Online Search Report" also revealed that Google's share of searches increased by more than 14% since last year. The search engine's mission to "organise the world's information" certainly seems on track. With the recent introduction of personalised search and the widely expected Google Talk, its instant messaging voice program, this may draw some of the youth away from Yahoo!
Only time will tell.
