An Overview Of Big Players

Google

Google’s search results are shown on Google.com, AOL/Netscape and Earthlink. They’re also available through many “metasearch” engines, and Google is one of the options on Hotbot. Add it all up, and Google results are probably displayed on 75% of all searches.

Google Adwords:

Google’s Adwords is a “pay per click” program, displaying text ads alongside search results on many search portals. The order in which they are displayed is based on the advertiser’s bid as well as the user response for each ad. Adwords ads are displayd on Google.com, AOL/Netscape, Ask Jeeves and many smaller portals. ADD it all up, and Adwords ads are probably displayed on 65% of all searches. Adwords is not limited to search results, though, so the actual reach of this program is much greater than that.

Overture.com

Overture is a “pay per click” model. They provide the primary search result for MSN, and provide search result through their own Looksmart.com portal. Looksmart also has a volunteer edited directory called Zeal, Whose results are mixed in with the paid listings.

Inktomi Search

Inktomi provides search results to multiple search portals, but they do not operate a search portal their own. Inktomi provides secondary search results to MSN and primary results for Hotbot as well as several small portals. All together, lnktomi results are probably shown on 6% of all searches.

Altavista Search

Altavista’s Search engine provides search results at Altavista.com, and is therefore shown on about 2% of searches. Altavista was once the king of search engine jungle. Acquired first by Overture and now owned by Yahoo, their days are probably numbered.

FAST/ALLTheWeb Search

Results from FAST are displayed on Lycos, and the “ALLTHeWeb” search portal. All together, probably less than 1% of all searches. Yahoo owns the ALLTHEWeb search portal now, but it’s unlikely that FAST result are going to grow significantly beyond the Lycos portal, and Lycos May make a switch at some point. FAST’s main business is corporate search solutions, so it’s unlikely that they will make significantly effort to retain market share in the public search market.