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

  • @[email protected]
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    22 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?

    • @[email protected]
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      1817 hours ago

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

    • @[email protected]
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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

    • @[email protected]
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      1021 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.

    • @shalafi
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      621 hours ago

      Bing’s solid for porn.

      • @idiomaddict
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        116 hours ago

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

    • @seanom
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      621 hours ago

      I use bing for the points. Free gamepass.

      • @kitnaht
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        1221 hours ago

        Microsoft is a nasty monopoly. I wouldn’t cheer for them. Ever.

    • @[email protected]
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      221 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
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        320 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
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          220 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
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            319 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        321 hours ago

        anywhere where the US government is less trustworthy than Russia

        oof, that’s a difficult decision…

          • @Zorque
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            118 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 :)

          • @[email protected]
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            120 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.