Anyone use anything other than Google and why?

[Mountain Goat]

I'm curious to know if anyone uses other search engines besides Google, and, if so, why?

MGoat

[Lesblancs]

MG,

I often use MSN (or whatever they call themselves now).

Reason - Les Blancs or Brittanygite has a page 1 ranking for all my relevant keywords.

So loyalty really & I wish everyone else would use them as well.

Robert

[vrooje]

The Hubby uses Yahoo!.

He claims the search results are more relevant, but I don't know about that. I think it may be more like habit. I like getting all the info...

[Rocket Rab]

I couldn't do my freelance work without Google - absolutely essential. Never use anything else - Google does it for me...

[Big Sis..]

Hi MG,

If I need to know anything I ask Google..
or you.....

Works for me...thanks MG.x

[mpprh]

Hi

I use google all the time and occasionally check my position on the Yahoo and MSN. Others seem to give the same results or are dominated by paid entries.

Judging by my statistics, Yahoo and MSN are far behind google.

Copernic is good.

Peter

[paolo]

MSN is good if you are looking for accommodation and you want to see individual houses instead of listing sites - unlike Google they seem to prioritise personal owner's websites.

Given that they all rank sites differently, if you don't find what you are looking for on Google, e.g. you are looking up an old friend, you may find the information on the first page of another. I found someone in the top 10 on Yahoo by their name, and they were not in the first few hundred on Google.

[Paul Carmel]

I sometimes use All The Web, I dont know why, I just do.

[AndyLucia]

I tend to use the evocatively titled meta engine "Dogpile", pulls results from all the main search engines to tends to be more thorough.

[Alan Knighting]

I tend to use the evocatively titled meta engine "Dogpile", pulls results from all the main search engines to tends to be more thorough.

I too use Dogpile from time to time and I find it excellent. I was introduced to it by a TV researcher who used little else.

Whatever I use is not of any great important. What’s important is what do my prospective clients use and for the moment that appears to be Google.

Fluffy

[la vache!]

Whatever I use is not of any great important. What’s important is what do my prospective clients use and for the moment that appears to be Google.

Fluffy

How right you are! My stats show a similar result, 80% Google/Google images (??), 9% MSN and then the rest all under 4%.

[paolo]

My stats show a similar result, 80% Google/Google images (??)

Don't underestimate the value of Google Image searches. I reckon people are using it more and more (I am extrapolating this from the fact that I am using it more and more). So we should all be captioning our pictures and using alt tags.

Yesterday someone from New York magazine (no, not New Yorker) found me through Google Images, and asked to buy a picture from me for a story they are doing - hopefully they will give me a link from their online edition instead. That might be worth something.

[la vache!]

Don't underestimate the value of Google Image searches. I reckon people are using it more and more (I am extrapolating this from the fact that I am using it more and more). So we should all be captioning our pictures and using alt tags.

Paolo, out of the 80% I quoted, 41.4% were from Google images, 38.9% from Google searches, so you are right on the importance of the photos.
I had never thought about it before! Would people would be looking for holiday properties using the images or is it more by accident that they end up visiting the site?

[paolo]

Would people be looking for holiday properties using the images or is it more by accident that they end up visiting the site?

The trouble is it is unlikely they will be in holiday-seeking mode, but you never know. Depends on the photo too. If it is a picture of Marie Antoinette that's not so good, if it's a local tourist attraction it's a likelier match.

[AndyLucia]

Would people be looking for holiday properties using the images or is it more by accident that they end up visiting the site?

The trouble is it is unlikely they will be in holiday-seeking mode, but you never know. Depends on the photo too. If it is a picture of Marie Antoinette that's not so good, if it's a local tourist attraction it's a likelier match.

The point is they have found your site. They may not be in holiday-mode that day but, if your site has provided answers to their questions, they may well come back when they are looking for a holiday; well, that is the theory anyway! A fair proportion of our site was developed to exploit exactly that; for example, the sections on driving in Spain ARE germane to holidaymakers but have general interest too - I know we get hits from people looking for that info, and I've been able to confirm (Google Analytics again) that some of them have returned later.