Google Domination

I need directions to the local Korean Restaurant. What do I do? Google it.

I need to find a recipe for Vegan Chocolate Cake. Where do I look? Google.

I need to determine the yearly Mercury emission rate from Mt. Tom Power Plant. Huh? Google.

I need to kill time for an hour of my life. Google Earth.

Would I ever consider using a different search engine? No.

There was a time when Dogpile was hip (cool name) and then Ask Jeeves (cool format). But now, why would anyone use anything other than Google?

The reason I'm mentioning this now is that there was an article in today's New York Times about the various mapping opportunities on the web.

Miguel Helft writes, "This fast-growing GeoWeb, as industry insiders call it, is in part a byproduct of the Internet search wars involving Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and others. "

One phrase stood out--"Internet search wars." Is the battle between an ant and my shoe a war?

The article got me thinking, does anyone actually use a search engine other than Google, and why?

According to Wikipedia, in May 2007, 56.3% of the total Internet searches were conducted on Google. 21% were done via Yahoo! 22.7% used other various engines.

This is a quite a surprise to me. It's like roughly half of the searchers chose to go to Williams when they got into Amherst. Or chose to watch an MLS game on TV when they had front row tickets to a Mets game.

The rise of Google has been striking. It is the slickest, most efficient, and most powerful search engine out there. It has a hell of name too. However, it clearly has not risen as high as I thought. It will be interesting to see if it can literally triumph in the search engine "war" and put the competitors out of their misery, or if one day, another jump start will come by and become king of the web.