A set of data recently released by HitWise suggests a trend on the economic status of people using either Google or Yahoo search engines. The results revealed that those financially well-off are likely to use Google while the lower class ones gravitate to Yahoo.
Furthermore, Google users tend to be the older generation and spend more money online while Yahoo users are the younger people and ones that spend less online.
The graph below shows the age groups as surveyed by Hitwise:
Despite the fact that Google leads in online search (60+% of total searches), Yahoo is still the #1 most visited website online. Obviously, the population that goes online just don’t do search — they also do emails, groups, answers, news and the lot — which attributes to the massive traffic Yahoo is getting on that front. Google on the other hand doesn’t create its own content.
As I mentioned above, comparing Google and Yahoo from this perspective might has some inherent bias mainly because Yahoo users are more spread out because of the various services it offers while Google is only doing search (okay, maybe mail.google.com as well but those are few and far between).
In that sense, Google users should have spent much less time on the site because they’d jump off to the target websites right after viewing the search results. Maybe this is the reason why Google went out and added more links on it’s default search page to point out its other services.
In a way, the Hitwise report may be comparing a very sharp paring knife (Google) to a regular all-in-one Swiss Army knife (Yahoo).
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Twitter: jhayrocas
replied on Feb 19th, 2008 at 8:07 am (1)
I’m not rich, I’m young and I use Google more than Yahoo!, so am I an anomaly?
^not really. I use google too.
I’m wondering about the mechanics of this study. How big was the sample? What’s the margin of error? I don’t entirely buy it, just due to my personal experiences not aligning with the results. But interesting nonetheless, I’d like to see more about it.
Hmmm … does this mean that
*Radio Station Analogy*
Google = RX 93.9
Yahoo = 90.7 Love Radio
???
HeHe
Abe, US ito ano? Im interested to see what the local stats are hmmm pero it will boil down to what is installed sa i-cafe
I love Google… Gmail too.
But Im not rich.
2 years ago I was poor and I use Yahoo
now that I’m rich , I use Google.
Data seems correct
yay i belong to the rich. but yikes i belong to the old. that leaves MSN/live for what? for microsoft employees.
@dusty: i think it’s Monster RX 93.1
Well it depends on what is the definition of poor is.
Poor in America can be considered as filthy rich here in the Philippines.
And poor is very relative. Poor in other countries can be considered as not owning an ipod or a laptop so the study is only applicable to where it was done.
If only it is true on my case but even though I’m using Google, I’m not rich. LOL
I’ve always used Google since I was a tiny toddler. Ha. But there’s nothing like a man who grew up on Yahoo but through hard work and individual ability ascended to become one of the Google users.
Okay the survey confirms that i’m indeed rich.
I don’t remember a time when i spent a centavo at Yahoo. But i did spend quiet a few hundreds to thousands of pesos on Google’s Adwords.
Why Yahoo is losing money: It’s because they’re hiring writers or buying content from other sources to put on their site while it’s users are spending less.
While Google legally steals content from several news sources, libraries and authors, consequently they save a lot of money.
By the time Microsoft will be able to acquire Yahoo through a proxy fight then I guess the statistics will change too.
Im not rich either but I use google more.
I will make a comment post about this issue in my blog http://www.blogtambayan.blogspot.com
I guess theres nothing much to do about it. That the trends shows.
the philippines is a third world country…does this mean that most filipinos use yahoo search?
and some of the rich in our country doesn’t necessarily use either yahoo or google? i think the study doesn’t apply to the philippine setting…
also, does the study mean that google caters more in terms of content and services to the rich?
maybe there’s a bias here…
I am not rich and I am 17 but I use Google. That means I am part of that 17% something no (Well, actually, no I am not since it says 18-24)?
I equally use both, google for searching, google for metrics, google for adwords, google for maps, google for adsense. Then theres Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Answers, Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports and Yahoo Small Business. Well whatever floats your boat.
Now let’s survey the Techie, non-techie crowd…
Hmmm… I know most friendster addicts STILL use Yahoo.
I don’t think Yahoo (Search) is for the poor. It’s for the jologs. LOL.
I use Google more especially when searching.
Strange no’. Another digital myth I guess…
i disagree to that. i think its just Google i more popular because it was known as a search engine while yahoo was well known because of their wide variety of internet services.