Search engines are benefiting from the new boom in Internet interest, reports Jupiter Media Metrix. Traffic at search sites is up 11% over the past six months, and traffic at the three top search sites has been significantly higher. But search engine Google wins the derby, growing 54% to 34.2 million unique visitors and surpassing AOL.com search in the April rankings of Jupiter Media Metrix. Yahoo search experienced the next-highest growth rate over six months, up 20% to 38.4 million unique visitors; followed by MSN search, up 16% to 42.4 million.
Google recently announced an alliance with AOL, which helped drive its recent rapid growth. “The most significant movement has been by Google, whose recent partnerships and reputation for quality searches allowed it to grow at a phenomenal rate,” says Stephen Kim, senior vice president of Jupiter’s audience ratings division.
In fact, partnerships and alliances between various portals and search engines have been a key driver of the 11% increase in traffic at search sites across the board over the past six months, according to Jupiter. Some of the bigger increases in traffic have been at smaller search sites that have partnered with larger search sites and portals to gain a wider distribution. Webring.com, for example, affiliated with Yahoo search and saw its traffic increase 57% to 1.4 million visitors between last November and this April.
Other search sites that have gained traffic rapidly include those that have specialized audiences. They’re leveraging new search technology, meta-searches and niche searches to deliver highly targeted results to an increasingly savvy web audience. Engine54.com, for example, which combines meta-search technology with shopping directories increased 105% to 1.2 million unique visitors over the same six-month period, Jupiter says.
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