If you already have, or are just starting, a multilingual web marketing programme and need to know which search engines are the most important for your localized content, I have created a visual map based on data and rankings from Alexa.com where the current (August 2010) number one search engine for a particular country is marked along with the domain extension. I have also tried to show the “size” and global importance of each site by roughly approximating the size of the title to its overall user base.
You are free to download and use the map as you wish but a link back to davidboniface.net would be appreciated. Please note that I offer this image “as is” and can make no claims as to its ongoing accuracy. I will monitor the data that I used to create it and try to update it at regular intervals.
The truly striking thing when looking at the map is the almost total global dominance of Google! Google dominates in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, most of Africa, Asia and Australasia. In comparison, Yahoo has a significant presence in Asia (it is number one in Japan and Google number two) and in West Africa. Orkut (orkut.com.br) is currently number two in Brazil and is an important search engine/portal to watch. It is pressing Google for top spot in Brazil and I would recommend to actually target both it and Google when carrying out web marketing programmes for the Brazilian market.
The two most important global players apart from Google and Yahoo are Baidu in China and Yandex in Russia. Both these search engines are well-established giants in their respective locations and appear to be safe from any challenge by Google or Yahoo to dislodge them (Google.ru is actually 4th in Russia). China and Google have of course had other issues and Google today operates from the google.com.hk domain which is based in Hong Kong, not mainland China. Google is ranked 5th in china at the present time.
Download the map image here
