Hitwise Search Engine Ratings
The latest Hitwise ratings for search engines, showing which search engines are most popular, based on visits.
Hitwise uses a combination of anonymous web surfing data provided by ISPs in various countries and its own panel-based measurements to determine which sites are most popular on the web. The data encompasses the surfing activities of 25 million people, worldwide.
Share Of Searches
The chart below shows the percentage of searches each search engine listed is estimated to have handled of all searches within the United States. Samples are for a four week period corresponding to the months shown at the top of the columns and ending as per the date shown at the bottom. Searches include those done on 57 search engines measured by Hitwise. Dates are m/yy or mm/dd/yy.
|
Search Engine |
Domain |
3/06 |
4/06 |
5/06 |
6/06 |
7/06 |
|
|
www.google.com |
58.3% |
58.6% ResourcesAnalytics The 2023 B2B Superpowers IndexAnalytics Data Analytics in MarketingDigital Marketing The Third-Party Data Deprecation PlaybookDigital Marketing Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study |
59.3% |
59.8% |
60.2% |
|
Yahoo |
search.yahoo.com |
22.3% |
22.2% |
22.0% |
22.3% |
22.5% |
|
MSN |
search.msn.com |
13.1% |
12.6% |
12.1% |
12.1% |
11.8% |
|
Ask |
www.ask.com |
4.0% |
4.2% |
4.4% |
3.6% |
3.3% |
|
AOL |
search.aol.com |
1.0% |
1.0% |
0.9% |
1.1% |
1.0% |
|
Others |
n/a |
1.3% |
1.2% |
1.2% |
1.1% |
1.0% |
|
For The 4 Week Period Ending: |
4/1/06 |
4/29/06 |
5/27/06 |
7/1/06 |
7/29/06 |
|
Note that to my understanding, only searches within the particular domains shown would be counted. Some of many examples:
- www.google.com would not include an image search on Google, since that would happen on the images.google.com domain
- search.yahoo.com would not include a local search on Yahoo, since that would happen on the local.yahoo.com domain.
- search.msn.com would not include a search on Microsoft-owned live.com, since that’s a completely different domain.
- www.ask.com would not include a search on www.ask.co.uk, the UK version of Ask, or iwon.com, which is owned by the parent company of Ask, IAC.
- search.aol.com does not count any searches that happen by those who are searching from within the AOL system, rather than coming to the external site.
I’ll be checking further with Hitwise about this. Here’s the same data, expressed as a trend chart:
More Resources
Hitwise Search Term Data
The same information Hitwise mines to understand web site popularity also lets it compile its own database of the search terms people perform on particular search engines, or to reach web sites in certain industries or just the terms used to find a single web site. Visit the page above to see examples of this.
Hitwise Blogs
Hitwise shares lots of data via its analysts blogs. Check them out.
Past Hitwise Search Engine Ratings
This page shows past search engine ratings from Hitwise that were featured on Search Engine Watch since September 2003. Only available to Search Engine Watch members. Click here to learn more about becoming a member.
Search Engine Ratings & Reviews
See this page for other Search Engine Watch pages that provide figures on search engine popularity in the United States and around the world.
Search Topics: Stats
This category of the Search Topics area available to Search Engine Watch members provides a listing of articles stretching back for years relating to search engine statistics. The Stats: Popularity subcategory specifically lists stories about how search engines are ranked. The Stats: Hitwise subcategory provides a rundown on news specifically about Hitwise statistics. Click here to learn more about becoming a member.