Google is the most popularly used search engine. So much so that the company’s name itself has become synonymous with the search engines themselves. Whenever you need to look up something on the internet, you Google it. This explains why most search engine optimization revolves are Google. However, Google isn’t the only search engine. In fact, it may come as a surprise to some GenZ-ers that Google isn’t ‘the’ search engine.
Well, how many search engines do you think are out there? 5? 10?
Actually, there are more than 140 search engines across the worldwide web.
Yes, more than 140.
In fact, there are some countries and regions that have local search engines having a bigger market share than Google.
Depending upon the demographics of the targeted audience, businesses should optimize for search engines other than Google as well.
You will be surprised to know the number of people who don’t prefer to run an internet search with Google and use some other engines instead. Though Google covers most of the global search engine market, there is still a very large population that doesn’t use it.
That being said, let’s talk about Google Vs. Bing Vs. Yahoo!
Google vs. Bing vs. Yahoo!
Before getting to what’s better and why; let’s talk about these search engines briefly.
Google is doubtlessly the most famously used search engine. According to recent stats, Google dominates the search engine market with a whopping market share of over 92.47%.
Google processes search in the number of trillions every year. Moreover, most organic search visits on the global level are claimed by Google. People trust Google with everything— from education to entertainment, health, finance, and so on. This is why Google is indispensable when it comes to planning for search engine optimization.
∎ Bing
Bing is one of the most popularly used search engines after Google, of course. Despite the great difference between the market shares of the two, Bing had over 1.03 billion visitors just last month. It is owned by Microsoft and came out in June 2009.
∎ Yahoo!
Yahoo! Came into existence even before Google did. It was one of the heroes of the early internet era. It was the most popular website in the year 2000. However, later things went downhill for Yahoo! due to what most call ‘lack of vision.’ Regardless, Yahoo! continues to exist and is used by many for web searches. It is now owned by Microsoft Bing.
Comparing Google Vs. Bing Vs. Yahoo!
All these search engines have something good, something bad. We have created certain categories based on which, we will compare these three search engines.
The most important factor to consider in a search engine is its search results. It can be further divided into the following parts:
∎ Relevancy of search results
How relevant are the search results greatly defines the quality of a search engine. To measure the relevancy of the results, you should try to match them with your search intent. The results that get closest are the most relevant. Moreover, it is important that the account you use for the web search shouldn’t have any account logged in and the browser should be clean (no cookies and stuff). This is important since search engines like Google store your browser activity. This then affects your search results. For example, Google might show you results based on what it thinks you’d find most relevant (according to the data it has stored about you).
Read Also: Are web cookies helpful for marketers?
∎ Local Search
If I talk about local search, Google Vs. Bing Vs. Yahoo! these all yield more or less the same results. There were directory listings, maps, ratings, company websites, ads, and so on. Although somewhat different in order, the organic results were also similar. However, Google and Bing give priority to results from their own business directories and rank them first.
∎ Image Search
My search experience with these three search engines told me that Google is best at identifying the search intent than the rest two. This is especially so in the case of image search. For example, if you search a random name on these search engines, Google will at least show you photos of actual humans. On the other hand, if the name is not of some famous person, Bing and Yahoo ‘might’ even show you things that are irrelevant to your search intent. So the point being, Google has the most powerful image search filter among these.
∎ Video Search
One aspect in which Bing definitely surpasses Google is in the case of video search. Unlike Google that gives you a vertical list of videos with small thumbnails, Bing gives you a grid of large and playable thumbnails. You wouldn’t even have to leave Bing for it. In fact, if you hover around the video a bit, it may give you a preview. As for Yahoo!, since Bing powers it, it too shouldn’t be bad for video search.
∎ Autocomplete Suggestions
It is not uncommon that you tap on the search bar and you don’t know how to form your query. In that case, autocomplete can be a real help. If we talk about which search engine among these three is the best at autocomplete suggestions, it’s Bing. In most cases, Bing gives more autocomplete suggestions than Google does. This makes the search experience smoother and more meaningful.
∎ Privacy
Google yields the best search results. They are often closest to your search intent. Most of the time, you happen to find just the right thing on Google. Ever wondered why is that? Well, your search on Google isn’t all that private. Google stores your search data and keeps an eye on your browser activity. Based on that, you can get an idea of what results will suit you best. On the other hand, Bing doesn’t have such deep integrations between services that track uses’ search activities like Google Analytics. Hence, Bing is safer in the terms of privacy.
Although, you can also use Yahoo! in that case, but with Bing, you won’t have to compromise too much on the quality.
Conclusion
Google has become synonymous with the word “search engine.” However, there are over 140 search engines around the world wide web. In fact, some search engines have such features that can surpass those of Google’s at times. After Google, Bing and Yahoo! are one of the most used search engines. Moreover, in some aspects, they surpass even Google. Like privacy and image search is better with Bing than Google. However, eventually, these search engines work more or less the same. So, if you look at it from the SEO perspective, you won’t need to have different strategies for these search engines. All of them prefer quality content and rank websites more or less the same.
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