Internet search giant Google has an undeniable stranglehold on a strong majority of the search market. But businesses would still be remiss if they failed to focus at least some of their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts on the large sections of the search market not held by Google.
The best-known Google competitors – Yahoo, Bing, and Chinese search engine Baidu – together make up a little less than 15 percent of all online searches around the globe, according to the most recent data from Net Applications’ Market Share web site. Google’s closest competitors, at one point this summer, accounted for almost 20 percent of the global market.
Nor is it just big companies like Yahoo and Microsoft or language-specialized concerns like Baidu that constitute a real alternative for search consumers – and search engine optimization (SEO) professionals. Start-ups like Worio, which displays customized links next to search data from the major companies, are expanding the capabilities of online search in new and different ways.
Experts say that small companies like Worio will not, by themselves, revolutionize internet search, but some speculate that that could change if one of the big search engines adds exciting new functionality to their existing product.
