Founded in 1998 by two Ph.D. students at Stanford University, Google has risen to become more than just a household name. Today, Google stands strong as an empire, armed with a vast arsenal of products and devices.

In 2006, we published an infographic showcasing the three most popular search engines in America. It comes as no surprise that even in 2006 Google came out on top as the clear winner. But what you may find surprising is how this data has shifted further in Google’s favor over the last decade.

Below is our original infographic from 2006. The data shows that Google held 46% of the search engine market share, with only Yahoo and MSN proving to be real competitors.

One might argue that in search it was still anyone’s game. But that’s not the case today…

In 2016, Google held a whopping 77.43% of the global search engine market share. And their only American competitors, Bing and Yahoo (who’s powered by Bing), held a measly 12.91%.

The chart below compares the data from 2006 with that of 2016:

I am a loyal Google user. But I wanted to see if my peers shared my alliance. I posed the question “Do you use a search engine other than Google?” to the team here at Elliance and my 1,017 Facebook friends.

Of the 25 or so respondents who call Elliance home, only 3 people choose to use an alternative search engine. Although, two of the three admitted that it’s a rare occurrence. Their preferences? DuckDuckGo, Lycos and Wolframalpha. (I’ve never heard of those last two either, don’t be embarrassed.)

On Facebook, one friend uses DuckDuckGo another prefers Bing. One user even said AskJeeves, but it’s unclear if his nostalgia was prompted by sarcasm or not.

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Interested in learning more about how Google SEO can help grow your business? Email us at info@elliance.com today.