What’s new in the world of search engines? I thought I would update this post originally published in 2018 to see which search engines are now providing the most traffic to websites. The year is now 2024 and as I checked Google analytics reports for clients’ websites, I see that Google is by far still the most popular search engine. One might say they have a monopoly on search. Other search engines sending traffic consistently were Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. Bing tops Yahoo now by about 5%. DuckDuckGo now has about 2% of the traffic. Yandex and AOL (which is strangely still around) now have a tiny share.
Top Search Engines in the World
Google still garners most of the world’s search traffic, followed by Bing and then Yahoo. Here’s a list of the top search engines for 2024 on desktop and mobile searches in the United States according to StatCounter and ReliableSoft:
- Bing
- Yahoo
- DuckDuckGo
- Yandex
- Baidu
- Ask
- Ecosia
- AOL
- Internet Archive
Search engine DuckDuckGo is making a stronger showing now amidst privacy concerns for internet users. DuckDuckGo is the second most popular search engine on mobile devices and averages 3 billion search queries a month. They have evolved from just being a search engine to being a company that helps protect users privacy across the internet.
WolframAlpha is one of the lesser known search engine. They specialize in computational searches. Their tagline is “Compute expert-level answers using Wolfram’s breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase and AI technology.”
Ecosia is the search engine that plants trees. They focus on the environmental impact of searches and having a transparent business model.
Mobile vs. Desktop Searches
While mobile traffic sends over 300% more visits to websites, desktop visitors typically spend more time on a website, view more pages than mobile visitors and have a lower bounce rate. However, over 50% of searches are done on mobile devices, so having your website rank high in search engine results is important on mobile devices as well as desktop.
Personalization Influences Search Results
Search engine results are changed by personalization. Your results can be different where you are versus for someone on the other side of the country. However privacy concerns are changing the amount of data that is available to search engines. Factors that affect personalization include:
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- IP Location – desktop computers
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- GPS Location – mobile devices
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- Reported Location
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- Search History – for signed in users or from cookies
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- Social Networks
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- Type of Device – Mobile, TV, Desktop
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- Language
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- Past Search History
The web user should decide which search engine suits their needs the best and provides the best privacy. Don’t just accept the default in your browser or device. See an article here about how to change your default search engine. Try out different search engines and you might just find the perfect one for you.
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