The statistics show Google had less than 90% search market share in Q4 of 2024, but which competitors are benefiting?

  • hperrin@lemmy.ca
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    17 hours ago

    Makes sense. Google is actively making their search engine worse to try to monetize it more, so other options have become much better than Google. Also their results seem to have steeply declined in the last few years. I get much better results on DDG (so, Bing by proxy).

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Google isn’t a very good search engine anymore, whoch makes sense as that’s not their priority.

  • superkret@feddit.org
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    21 hours ago

    tl/dr: Bing is second with 4% and Yandex is third.
    My guess is people use Bing when Microsoft literally forces them to or they don’t know how to change it (start menu search, Edge default), for downloadable images, and porn.
    Yandex is the only search engine available without fuss in Russia.

    I’m honestly really surprised that Baidu doesn’t have ~20% of the market.
    Can someone who knows more than me about China maybe explain?

    • bdonvrA
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      16 hours ago

      Regarding Baidu it’s probably a statistic collection problem, very common in regards to measuring Chinese Internet usage

    • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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      18 hours ago

      Interestingly, DDG (using bing) usually gives me the same or better results as google itself. As for yandex, while it is russian it has an english .com version as well and it has the somewhat unique ability to find things the american engines filter out, coming in handy when looking for certain things 🚢 ☠️.

      So that might make a decent subset of (western) users use those engines deliberately

    • Fusion@feddit.org
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      21 hours ago

      I’m using Ecosia, which is (as far as I know) based on Bing and I really like it. The search quality really isn’t bad at all. (and I’m searching a lot online) Also it feels more to what I’m used to, without AI answers and other stuff that I don’t like at the top of the results.

      • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        It has definitely also gotten worse in the last two ish years though. Or maybe my tastes have gotten weirder.

    • holo@lemmy.wtf
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      21 hours ago

      Baidu(and other mainland search engines) doesn’t publish stats, and it’s harder to track internal traffic given no part of the traffic should reach international routers.

      Yandex is also used in the US and anywhere where the US government is less trustworthy than Russia.

      • MudMan@fedia.io
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        20 hours ago

        These are Statcounter stats, which are typically put together by tacking traffic reported by web sources. I’m guessing Chinese search may not be referring too many people to the sites that contribute info to Statcounter.

        Also worth noting that AI search isn’t counted hear, as far as the original source can tell. Maybe Google users are more likely to migrate to AI solutions (or just have more AI solutions available) than some of the alternatives listed here.

        • Eagle0110@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          Then it probably also contributed to it, that if we can assume most users of Baidu are Chinese people in mainland China, then most of them wouldn’t be visit many non-domestic/non-Chinese website where StatCounter could get their tracking traffic reports from, because of a combination of CCP’s internet censorship that practically runs on a whitelist and blocks most nondomest website by default, as well as language barrier since most PRC residents have barely any functional English skill (like the ability to actually understand others in English or express ideas in English, as opposed to merely earn scores on a standardized English exam).

          • MudMan@fedia.io
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            19 hours ago

            Yeah. I don’t know what stats they can aggregate, but I imagine they skew non-Chinese.

            I’m very skeptical of Statcounter stuff in general, although it’s at least apples to apples if you’re tracking something over time. Google is likely dropping in usage. Where that’s going is maybe a bridge too far for what’s being collected.

      • superkret@feddit.org
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        21 hours ago

        anywhere where the US government is less trustworthy than Russia

        oof, that’s a difficult decision…

          • Zorque@lemmy.world
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            17 hours ago

            You’re right! While there’s a significant amount of corruption and greed in the US, they’re at least not an outright dictatorship :)

            • holo@lemmy.wtf
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              17 hours ago

              Right, just like North Korea isn’t because they say they’re not.

          • superkret@feddit.org
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            20 hours ago

            No, for most people it’s not a difficult decision at all.
            But the result won’t be unanimous, it’ll be split right down the middle based on where they live.

    • Railing5132@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Honest question - why the down votes? I’ve used the free Kagi searches for several quite specific things that ddg (Bing) anf Google failed and found the results very well-suited. I just haven’t exhausted my 300 free searches yet so haven’t had a need. What does the community have a negative opinion about it for?