Market Research Studies
Statistics and Reports
Which Search Engines
do UK Web Surfers Use?
By Ammon Johns
It is indeed a frequently asked question of search engine
optimisation and internet marketing to ask which search engines
people in the UK actually use most.
Well thanks to some UK
market research performed by SKOPOS there are now some
recent hard facts and figures from a survey of UK internet
users. The sample for this study comprised 1,876 UK members
of the Euro-Panel.
The results are quite amazing, and give all those marketing
online in the UK a lot to think about. Not least is the clear
preference shown for Google as the search engine of choice
by UK consumers.
34.8% of UK consumers, surveyed online by SKOPOS
Market Research, stated that they almost always use Google
when looking for information on the internet. This gives Google
a massive lead over the closest rival, Yahoo! who were almost
always used by 24.5% of the UK consumers.
This is despite a complete lack of UK tv advertising by Google,
and despite extensive television advertising campaigns by
rival search sites such as Yahoo!, Lycos, Excite, MSN and
AskJeeves.
The research showed iWon as a clear loser, reported as almost
always used by none of those surveyed, and reported as never
used at all by 87.1% of the UK consumers.
| A sample of 1,876 UK Internet users were
asked: When looking for information on the Internet, do
you use the following search engines / web directories... |
| Search
Engine |
Almost Always |
| |
Often |
| |
Sometimes |
| |
Infrequently |
| |
Never |
| AllTheWeb/FAST |
2.5 |
3.9 |
6.3 |
10.4 |
76.9 |
|
| AltaVista |
6.5 |
16.0 |
29.9 |
26.2 |
21.4 |
| AOL |
3.1 |
4.6 |
10.2 |
16.3 |
65.9 |
| AskJeeves |
13.1 |
26.8 |
29.5 |
19.4 |
11.2 |
| DirectHit |
0.3 |
1.0 |
3.9 |
10.8 |
84.1 |
| DMOZ
/ ODP |
0.3 |
1.5 |
3.8 |
9.1 |
85.4 |
| E-spotting |
0.2 |
1.5 |
5.3 |
13.1 |
80.0 |
| Excite |
4.0 |
15.5 |
28.2 |
25.6 |
26.7 |
| Goto |
1.1 |
4.4 |
9.1 |
16.5 |
69.0 |
| Google |
34.8 |
18.5 |
15.5 |
10.9 |
20.3 |
| Hotbot |
0.8 |
2.2 |
6.7 |
12.9 |
77.4 |
| Infoseek |
0.8 |
5.4 |
14.3 |
24.6 |
54.9 |
| iWon |
0.0 |
0.4 |
2.7 |
9.7 |
87.1 |
| Looksmart |
0.8 |
2.5 |
7.6 |
16.2 |
72.9 |
| Lycos |
7.1 |
22.9 |
33.6 |
19.4 |
16.9 |
| MetaCrawler |
1.4 |
4.4 |
7.6 |
14.9 |
71.8 |
| Mirago |
0.5 |
2.2 |
4.0 |
9.9 |
83.5 |
| MSN |
7.5 |
14.7 |
18.4 |
17.5 |
41.9 |
| NBCi |
0.5 |
0.9 |
2.3 |
10.3 |
86.1 |
| Netscape |
1.8 |
4.9 |
8.9 |
15.1 |
69.2 |
| Northern
Light |
0.3 |
1.6 |
3.9 |
11.3 |
82.9 |
| UK
Plus |
2.0 |
7.7 |
14.1 |
17.4 |
58.8 |
| WebCrawler |
0.9 |
3.9 |
9.9 |
17.4 |
67.9 |
| Yahoo! |
24.9 |
29.8 |
25.0 |
11.8 |
8.5 |
| Other |
8.0 |
9.7 |
16.6 |
18.8 |
47.0 |
| Figures
above represent percentages of the survey sample |
Yahoo's branding did have effect, in that only 8.5% of the
UK consumers stated that they never use Yahoo! and over 75%
of UK consumers use Yahoo! at least sometimes when searching.
The efforts of marketing undertaken by MSN do not seem to
have done so well, with over 40% of users in the UK reporting
that they never use it for searching.
These findings are from SKOPOS
Market Research and may be freely quoted, in whole
or in part, provided this section is included intact and unedited.
SKOPOS is an International Market Research agency, operating
throughout France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Whilst offering traditional research, SKOPOS specialises in
online methodologies, particularly through the use of its
36,000 member Euro-Panel.
SKOPOS (Institute for Market and Communications Research)
is part of the dooyoo
group.
http://www.skopos-mr.co.uk
Tel: 020 8747 4506
Fax: 020 8747 2089
If you want further information on the Euro-Panel, mail Claire
van den Ring at info@skopos-mr.co.uk
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