Among the global search engine rankings today, the most popular is Google Search; other well-known search engines also include: Amazon, Yahoo, Bing, duckduckgo, AOL, Baidu, etc. Google is certainly one of the most favored search engines, but it is definitely not the only one. Different search engines have different demographic audiences and different pros and cons. In this article, you will find rankings and market shares of all the top internet search engines, their pros and cons, and whether Google really is the most popular.
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The Most Popular Search Engines
Here we list the top 10 search engines ranked by total visit share collected in the US market in September 2021. The final list is organized by percentage share of total search engine visits in the US market in September 2021.
| Rank | Search Engine | Visit Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 72.77% | |
| 2 | Amazon | 12.87% |
| 3 | Yahoo! | 8.36% |
| 4 | Bing | 2.93% |
| 5 | duckduckgo | 1.59% |
| 6 | AOL | 1.12% |
| 7 | Baidu | 0.20% |
| 8 | Ask.com | 0.07% |
| 9 | Ecosia | 0.06% |
| 10 | Yandex | 0.03% |
Unsurprisingly, Google and Amazon top the list perhaps. Yahoo! and Bing also grabbed spots in the top 5. These are names we easily recognize in the internet world.
Search engines like DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Baidu, and Yandex may rank lower but they made it into our top internet search engines list for important reasons. DuckDuckGo prioritizes user privacy, Ecosia is a charitable search engine, Baidu has the most single-country users and Chinese audience—although we'll go into more detail on each one's pros and cons later.
When you look further into the growth quadrants for the US market, you find search engines fall into four different categories:
Google and Amazon are considered “Mature Players”, which is not hard to see looking at how high they rank on the visit share table. Ask.com and Baidu are deemed “Game Changers”, having grown at the highest rate in the past 6 months. Meanwhile “Niche Players” like Ecosia have just found their footing so it’s unclear what will happen with them.
Which Search Engines Lead in Which Markets?
Is there a particular market you care about? Let’s look at your most significant search engines. According to our Market Browser tool, here are the countries/regions with the largest search engine market share as of September 2021:
The US is by far the biggest contributor so far with a 36.11% market share, followed closely by India with a 6.64% market share. South Korea follows closely with 4.6%. Just off the podium is the UK with 3.87%.
We broke down which search engines are leading：
United States
| Rank | Search Engine | Visit Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 72.00% | |
| 2 | Amazon | 12.87% |
| 3 | Yahoo! | 8.36% |
| 4 | Bing | 2.93% |
| 5 | duckduckgo | 1.59% |
| 6 | AOL | 1.12% |
| 7 | Baidu | 0.20% |
| 8 | Ask.com | 0.07% |
| 9 | Ecosia | 0.06% |
| 10 | Yandex | 0.03% |
United Kingdom
| Rank | Search Engine | Visit Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 88.80% | |
| 2 | Yahoo | 5.12% |
| 3 | Amazon | 1.87% |
| 4 | duckduckgo | 1.55% |
| 5 | Bing | 1.51% |
| 6 | AOL | 0.57% |
| 7 | Ecosia | 0.33% |
| 8 | Baidu | 0.16% |
| 9 | Ask.com | 0.05% |
| 10 | Yandex | 0.04% |
Australia
| Rank | Search Engine | Visit Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 91.37% | |
| 2 | Yahoo! | 3.11% |
| 3 | Amazon | 2.33% |
| 4 | Bing | 1.35% |
| 5 | duckduckgo | 1.18% |
| 6 | Baidu | 0.39% |
| 7 | Ecosia | 0.15% |
| 8 | Ask.com | 0.06% |
| 9 | Yandex | 0.03% |
| 10 | AOL | 0.02% |
India
| Rank | Search Engine | Visit Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 92.97% | |
| 2 | Yahoo! | 3.37% |
| 3 | Amazon | 2.21% |
| 4 | Bing） | 0.95% |
| 5 | duckduckgo | 0.23% |
| 6 | Ask.com | 0.21% |
| 7 | Yandex | 0.03% |
| 8 | Ecosia | 0.02% |
| 9 | AOL | 0.02% |
| 10 | Baidu | <0.01% |
Despite some fluctuation in rankings, Google still sits firmly in first place across all markets, with Yahoo! and Amazon duking it out for second and third. Perhaps most interesting is that while Yandex still ranks 10th in the US, UK, and Australia tables, it jumps up to 7th place in India—something to consider if you are working with that market.
Niche Players
Given Baidu is a Chinese search engine, Yandex a Russian search engine, and Ecosia originated from Germany, let's take a close look at their rankings in their respective home markets.
In September 2021, the search engine rankings for China, Russia, Germany are:
China
| Rank | Search Engine | Visit Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baidu | 66.82% |
| 2 | 21.24% | |
| 3 | Bing | 2.21% |
| 4 | Amazon | 2.30% |
| 5 | duckduckgo | 1.75% |
Russia
| Rank | Search Engine | Visit Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 98.17% | |
| 2 | Yandex | 0.55% |
| 3 | Yahoo! | 0.49% |
| 4 | Amazon | 0.32% |
| 5 | Bing | 0.20% |
Germany
| Rank | Search Engine | Visit Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 89.54% | |
| 2 | Yahoo! | 3.04% |
| 3 | Bing | 2.40% |
| 4 | Amazon | 1.93% |
| 5 | duckduckgo | 1.43% |
| 6 | AOL | 0.73% |
| 7 | Ecosia | 0.70% |
Based on this, it's fair to assume you definitely want to optimize for Google regardless of your market—maybe except for China. However, if you're aiming for the Russian market, you can't overlook Yandex.
Which Search Engine Is Most Popular on Social Media?
But what about the general internet user? So who comes out on top there?
Here are the top search engines based on Twitter followers:
| Rank | Search Engine | Twitter Followers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2340 万 | |
| 2 | Amazon | 380 万 |
| 3 | duckduckgo | 190 万 |
| 4 | Yahoo! | 140 万 |
| 5 | Bing | 544,600 |
| 6 | AOL | 164,800 |
| 7 | Ecosia | 87,300 |
| 8 | Ask.com | 59,200 |
| 9 | Baidu | 44,200 |
| 10 | Yandex | 18,900 |
Unsurprisingly, Google and Amazon still lead the pack. However, DuckDuckGo has overtaken both Yahoo and Bing, jumping up two spots in the market share rankings. Ecosia also rose two spots while Baidu fell to the bottom. This may indicate demographic differences between general search engine users and those active on search engines on Twitter.
When it comes to customer ratings, the rankings are different again. We checked the Trustpilot scores for each internet search engine in September 2021:
| Rank | Search Engine | Trustpilot Rating (Stars out of 5) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ecosia | 3.9 |
| 2 | 3.4 | |
| 3 | duckduckgo | 3.3 |
| 4 | Yandex | 2.9 |
| 5 | Baidu | 2.3 |
| 6 | Bing | 2.0 |
| 7 | Amazon | 1.9 |
| 8 | Ask.com | 1.9 |
| 9 | AOL | 1.7 |
| 10 | Yahoo! | 1.6 |
A bit of a different picture, isn't it?
While veteran players like Google still rank in the top 3 for customer ratings, Amazon has slipped all the way down to 7th place, while Ecosia jumped to 1st place followed closely by DuckDuckGo. Ecosia's most popular position here is a strong signal of the potential this search engine has.
We'd advise keeping a close eye on this one.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Different Search Engines?
How do we account for the huge differences in market share between search engines? What does this have to do with how they rank for trust pilot, or which is most followed on Twitter?
Let's find out by looking at their pros and cons.
Pros
-
Its scale and reputation.
As of June 2021, Google has 87.76% of the search market share.
With the most Twitter followers and advantage on Trustpilot, Google is clearly favored by the public.
-
Its additional features.
It has free additional features like Google Maps, Google Books, and Google Scholar.
It integrates seamlessly with other Google accounts (Analytics, Gmail, YouTube, etc.) which is very convenient for users who want to do more than just search.
Cons
- It sells data to third parties.
- It gets data from emails (and uses it to show users relevant ads).
duckduckgo
Pros
-
Its privacy.
Perhaps DuckDuckGo's biggest and most unique pro is that it does not track, collect or store any of your data—meaning ultimate privacy.
-
Its growth.
To date, DuckDuckGo has reached 81,404 daily searches in 2021, a big increase from 23,654 daily searches in 2020. Clearly this search engine is growing rapidly and worth keeping an eye on.
-
Its transparency.
You know the results you see are the same for anyone doing the same search since no localization or analytics will impact their results.
-
Its customizable interface.
The interface is easy to customize to your needs.
DuckDuckGo also has infinite scroll so there's no annoying clicking into the next page of results.
Cons
-
Its privacy (funnily enough!)
Since DuckDuckGo does not collect and store any of your data, users do not benefit from personalized ads.
-
Lack of personalization.
Because DuckDuckGo does not save your search history, it cannot provide personalized service like other search engines.
-
It lacks many additional features.
For example, DuckDuckGo does not have all the extra features Google provides, meaning users have to leave the search engine to view emails.
Yahoo!
Pros
-
Its size.
Yahoo! is the world's largest search engine for desktop users (as of June 2021).
-
Its interface.
Yahoo! gives you everything you need—from trending news to the biggest news stories, to weather forecasts, and sports results.
-
Its results.
Yahoo! has some specialized searches. For example, when you search for a type of food it will instantly give you recipes:
-
Cons
-
Its results.
Yahoo! is powered by Bing so results can be a bit cross-over.
-
Its ads.
The homepage is cluttered with ads.
Search result ads fill the first page and are often poorly labeled. It's hard to discern what results are paid vs organic.
-
Its privacy.
Like Google, Yahoo! sells user data to third parties.
-
Its interface.
The main screen gives you a ton of content which some users may find cluttered and unappealing.
。
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Ecosia
Pros
-
It's a charity.
Ecosia is a charitable search engine. Users know they are doing something good for the environment while using it which may incentivize them to switch from Google.
-
It has a high Trustpilot rating.
Users rate Ecosia even better than Google on Trustpilot, indicating it has a devoted user base.
-
Its transparency.
It publishes monthly financial reports that anyone can view.
-
Its privacy.
It does not sell data to advertisers.
You can turn off user tracking and personalized search results making it more private and secure.
-
Its interface.
Ecosia has a clean homepage that is easy to navigate.
It also has some handy add-ons including quick links to different pages and Ecosia Travel.
Cons
-
Its relevancy.
Search results aren't always highly relevant to your query which may put some users off.
Ads are often irrelevant to your search query since privacy settings don't allow for much customization unless you actively edit in settings.
Bing
Pros
-
Its rewards program.
You collect points for rewards cards every time you use Bing. This can certainly incentivize users to use it more frequently.
-
Its advanced search and features.
Bing has an advanced image search that allows users to view trending searches on different topics as well as use visual search capabilities. This may make it the preferred choice for users searching related images.
Bing offers special music search capabilities. This will show you music videos as featured snippets, lyrics to the left, and some biographical info on the artist. This may make it more popular among music aficionados.
Cons
-
Its (lack of) privacy.
Bing monitors activity and sells your data to advertisers which may deter users.
-
Its interface.
The main screen shows a lot of information which some users may find cluttered.
It has obvious accessibility issues with lack of voice search.
Amazon
Pros
-
Its size.
In 2020, 63% of online product searches happened on Amazon.
In fact, Amazon is technically the world's 2nd largest search engine if we exclude YouTube which belongs to Google.
-
Its purpose.
If you are running an ecommerce business, Amazon is your ideal choice. Most Amazon users are already primed for conversion. This means you won't have issues with user intent.
-
Its interface.
Comparing prices and other product details is easy.
Cons
-
Its size.
Competition will be extremely fierce if you want to rank in the top 5.
-
Its high cost (for sellers).
Search is almost entirely keyword-based—if you're searching it's professional, if you're selling it's a racket because you have to optimize very deliberately. Amazon's algorithm is very specific to Amazon so optimizing listings looks very different than optimizing a general website.
Yandex
Pros
-
It's a gateway to the Russian market
Yandex handles over 50% of total Russian traffic, making it a good way to get into the market.
It's also popular in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Belarus.
-
Its additional features.
Yandex offers cloud storage so you can store files in the same place you're getting info from, meaning users don't have to leave the search engine to access important documents.
It provides a 360 degree solution like Google—having its own mail, maps, images, videos, etc. meaning users don't have to leave the search engine to access these.
Its "Protection" feature makes users feel more secure.
Cons
-
Its results are best suited for Russian webpages so it may be irrelevant if you aren't working for the Russian market.
Remember Yandex is 2nd in total traffic share in Russia at:
Baidu
Pros
-
It's a gateway to the Chinese market.
Baidu is China's largest search engine making it a one-way ticket to the huge market.
-
It covers over 70% of China's search market.
It has the most single-country users.
Like Google, Baidu incorporates rich features into its SERPs. This makes it easy to use.
Cons
-
It is heavily censored so not all content can be listed and shared on Baidu.
-
Results are best localized for China so it may be irrelevant if you aren't working for the Chinese market.
Remember Baidu ranks 1st and has 66.92% of total traffic share in China:
AOL
Pros
-
Its size.
It's an established search engine with over 1.5 million users per month as of May 2021.
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Relevant results for search terms.
AOL answers questions directly. If you want to know the weather somewhere, the answer pops up clearly right away.
Cons
-
Its features.
It lacks advanced features like email so users have to leave the browser to access those.
-
Its interface.
Like Yahoo!, the homepage can look cluttered with too much info and ads which some users may find annoying.
-
Its results.
It doesn't provide contextual or intent-based results meaning SERPs are often vague.
It doesn't refresh search results so you don't know what's the latest info.
Ask.com
Pros
-
Its relevant searches.
It has related searches functionality.
Cons
-
Its overall interface.
Like Yahoo! and AOL, the homepage is cluttered with info and ads. This may annoy some users.
-
Its results.
It doesn't show ranking results.
It's a directory so not all info is accurate.
The first result in the SERP is full of ads.
Conclusion
So what are the key takeaways here?
Make sure you optimize for Google no matter what.
Don't overlook the power of Amazon if you're in ecommerce.
So yes, it's safe to say Google is widely considered a top search engine. But be sure to consider the other popular ones too! Or you could miss out on extra traffic.
