As human beings we are a curious lot, which is one of the reasons there is such a thing as a search engine.
Whether we need to have information, or just want to find out something new, search engines help us find what we need to know.
We have researched the most interesting search engine statistics to share with you here.
Let’s take a peek into the past and see where search engines started.
- 1990: Archie was the first search engine ever developed. Alan Emtage was the developer, and it was before the World Wide Web. It was developed for FTP sites.
- 1993: The World Wide Web Wanderer was introduced by Matthew Gray. Eventually, this database was named Wandex.
- 1994-1995: Yahoo was launched by David Filo and Jerry Yang. March 2020 was Yahoo’s 25th anniversary.
- 1994: WebCrawler, which was bought by AOL.
- 1994: June 1994 saw the introduction of Lycos.
- 1994 & 1995: Infoseek and Netscape introduce search engine submission.
- 1997: AltaVista and Ask Jeeves were all the rage.
- 1998: Google started its path in the search engine realm.
We didn’t name every single attempt at search engines since most of them faded away and went quietly into that “goodnight”.
We highlighted the ones we believed were most relevant.
Today, we have Yahoo, Google, Bing, and other popular search engines used for various purposes.
The search engine ideal has evolved and grown since 1990, giving us virtually all access to all sorts of information.
Let’s see what the statistics teach us.
10 Key Search Engine Statistics
- Google, founded in 1998, is the number one most visited website in the world.
- In January 2023, Google’s search engine had 84.69% of the market share among search engines.
- As of 2023, Google processes an average of more than 100,000 search queries per second.
- One in four (37%) internet users between 16 and 64 use search engines to discover brands.
- Baidu, China’s top search engine, has a global market share of 2.96% in the search engine usage realm.
- As of 2022, Google receives 26.9% of its queries from the United States.
- The Google search engine had a global market share of 96.17% in the mobile search engine market by the end of 2022.
- 27% of the world’s population used voice search on mobile devices.
- 30% of websites ranking on the first page of search results aren’t ranking as well on mobile.
- Google Lens has been used to answer 8 billion visual search queries per month as of 2022.
Search Engine Statistics in 2025
This section will offer a few general search engine statistics you need to know.
1. Google, Founded in 1998, Is the Number One Most Visited Website in The World.
Similarweb shows that in January 2023, Google enjoyed 80.2 billion visits at an average duration of nearly 11 minutes per visitor (10:54).
The United States uses Google the most at 27.15%. In 2022, Google enjoyed 89.3 billion visits per month.
That doesn’t mean Google had a better 2022 than 2023. It means visitors to the search engine fluctuate monthly.
Also, the data for all of 2022 is available, but we are still in 2023. The year is not over yet.
Google isn’t just a search engine. It offers other services that people find especially useful, like Gmail.
(Similarweb)
At its peak in November 2018, the Google search engine had 91.46% of the search engine market share.
Bing ranks second in the search engine market with an 8.85% share, which is miles away from Google’s share.
Yahoo is still popular, but only has 2.59% of the search engine market share as of January 2023.
Baidu, China’s leading search engine, has a global market share of 0.54%.
YANDEX is Russia’s premier search engine with a global market share of 1.31%.
DuckDuckGo is also on the map with a global market share of 0.83%
These numbers represent the global market share for search engines.
(Statista 2023)
3. As of 2023, Google Processes an Average of More than 100,000 Search Queries per Second.
Google handles 100,000 search queries per second, which translates to more than 9 billion searches per day.
That translates into 3 trillion searches each year across the globe. In 2001, just about three years after its launch, Google search processed over 27 billion queries.
It’s worth noting that Baidu and Yandex are showing significant growth, while Google shows far less growth.
However, the faster rate of growth has no significant impact on Google’s search engine share in volume of queries globally.
Google remains on top, and there isn’t enough happening to change that any time soon.
(Internet Live Stats)
4. One in Four (37%) Internet Users Between 16 and 64 Use Search Engines to Discover Brands.
Data from 2019 revealed that search engines were the most influential method for discovering brands among internet users between 16 and 64, at 37%.
Television advertising came in second at 35%. Interestingly, income and age are two primary factors that determine how brands are discovered.
For instance, younger audiences tend to use search engines more for brand discovery and recommendations alongside those who are within the top 25% of the income range.
For individuals between 55 and 64, television has more influence.
Also, television has more influence over those at the bottom of the income range.
In contrast to these search engine statistics, audiences between 16 and 24 years old are 1.4 times more apt to be more influenced by vlogs at 18%.
(GWI 2019)
The market share for Baidu at the end of 2022 came to 1.86%, which means it’s experiencing solid growth.
For perspective, Google’s share was 84.3%, Bing had 8.25%, and Yahoo had 3.97% by the end of 2022.
Baidu had an uptake to 2.96% as of February 2023. Bing’s market share fell to 7.28%, while Yahoo grew a bit to 3.10% over one month.
Google showed some growth with 85.07% as of February 2023.
(NetMarketShare)
6. As of 2022, Google Receives 26.9% of Its Queries from The United States.
We already mentioned that the United States uses Google’s search engine the most, which comes to 26.9% of the total global distribution.
India is second at 4.5%, which is significantly lower than the United States. India is followed closely by Brazil at 4.36%.
Moreover, the United Kingdom’s figure is 3.95% and Japan’s 3.75%.
These percentages represent how many visits Google gets from various countries.
These percentages fluctuate, but these are from 2022.
(Statista 2023 2)
Some search engine experts believe that Baidu has played a role in the decline of Yahoo’s search engine share in China.
Baidu has become China’s most used and favored search engine in the country with a 76% market share in volume.
Depending on what statistics you look at, Baidu and Yahoo tend to be interchangeable as the third most used search engines in the world.
We know China uses Baidu the most right now, but we aren’t sure it’s taken over Yahoo in the global search engine market yet.
(Statista 2023 3)
8. Yandex, Russia’s Favorite Search Engine, Has 92% of All Russian Internet User Search Engine Traffic.
Yandex is a Russian-born search engine and a favorite in that country.
In fact, Yandex has a whopping 90% market share in Russian internet user search traffic.
It’s also popular among other countries like Germany, China, Ukraine, and Belarus.
Yandex was developed in 1997, just before Google’s launch.
It’s available in Russian and English, which has helped give it traction in growth since 1997.
In 2020, this search engine enjoyed 3.27 billion monthly visitors, which represented 92.36% of traffic from Russian internet users.
(Clever Solution)
9. DuckDuckGo Says It Experiences 3 Billion Monthly Searches.
DuckDuckGo may only have a 0.83% global market share compared to Google, Yahoo, and Bing, but it’s seen some solid growth and popularity over the past few years.
Besides getting 3 billion monthly searches, it also enjoys 6 million monthly downloads.
DuckDuckGo is different from the world’s largest search engines because it doesn’t use third-party trackers to track your search history, browsing history, location, habits or other demographics.
You also won’t get ads based on your activities or things to otherwise influence you or interrupt your search queries.
DuckDuckGo continues to keep their search engine free from such distractions and tracking.
(DuckDuckGo)
10. In 2020, Ask.Com Had an Estimated 60.75 Million Monthly Users.
Ask.com, formerly Ask Jeeves, is a search engine founded in 1996 that helps you find web pages you’re looking for by querying on a topic.
According to our sources, most of the traffic that went through Ask.com in 2020 was from the United States.
After the United States, Japan (11.99%) and the United Kingdom (6.01%) used Ask.com the most.
Ask.com is popular due to its ability to process through natural language, which means the user can ask questions in their own natural formats.
Also, the average time spent per visit was 4 minutes and 44 seconds in 2020.
(Clever Solution)
Mobile Search Engine Statistics
This section is dedicated to mobile search engine statistics since mobile usage is growing so fast.
Baidu has a 10.16% market share in the mobile search engine sector.
While this still pales in comparison to Google, Baidu does outweigh the rest.
Bing only has 1.20% of mobile search engine usage share and Yahoo a 1.09%.
Baidu has competition with Sogou coming up fast as China’s favorite mobile search engine.
Where Baidu has had the highest market share between 70% and 80%, it seems Sogou is giving the search engine a run for its money.
(NetMarketShare)
12. Each Month, Yahoo Experiences More than 700 Million Visits from Mobile Devices.
Yahoo has had a tough time keeping up with Google for some time and seems to be losing its relevance, but it’s still alive and kicking for now.
Despite its active daily user (DAU) count being virtually aligned with Bing, the mobile search market share has declined from 0.99% to only 0.88%.
Yahoo has also seen a decline in its desktop search engine share, which has dropped from 5.4% to 2.8%.
Yahoo, like Google, has offerings beyond its search engine like Yahoo Mail, News, and other offerings.
In March 2020, Yahoo saw 3,549 million visits, which rose to 3,646 million by August.
Yahoo has a mobile app and is as accessible as Google or Bing.
(Market.us, NetMarketShare)
13. In the Final Quarter of 2021, 73% of Search Ad Clicks on Google Happened Through Mobile Devices.
By the end of 2021, 73% of search ad clicks occurred on mobile devices.
When people perform a search query on Google, sponsored ads are generated at the top.
Internet users do click on those ads. They do so through desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile phone.
While a total of 73% of all ad clicks on Google came through on mobile devices, 70% were from phones, and 3% were from tablets.
This shows that mobile device use is up, especially from mobile phones.
(Statista 2023 4)
In December 2022, Google searches on mobile devices accounted for 96.17% of all mobile searches in the world.
That’s a growth of over 93% since 2015. Google has been dominating the globe almost since its inception.
Moreover, more sources tell us that Google now has a 96.71% market share in the mobile search engine realm.
Its closest competitor is Yandex at 0.67%. Yahoo outdid Bing at 0.55% to 0.46% respectively in February 2023.
Baidu had 0.47% and DuckDuckGo had 0.42% of the market share.
(Statista 2023 5)
15. 27% of The World’s Population Used Voice Search on Mobile Devices.
Think with Google reported that in 2018, 27% of the world used voice search on Google from their mobile devices.
Another 41% of American adults use voice search more than once per day.
Another 55% of teens in America use voice search more than one time per day.
A Google survey also revealed that 56% of people who used voice search said that it made them feel tech savvy to use this technology.
Moreover, habits related to using voice searches revealed that 38% talk to mobile phones when they are watching television.
Another 23% of adults engage in voice search while they’re cooking a meal.
(Google 2014, Think with Google)
16. 30% of Websites Ranking on The First Page of Search Results Aren’t Ranking as Well on Mobile.
If you’re a marketer, business, brand, or other website owner, you need to know that 30% of websites that rank on the first page of Google search results aren’t ranking that well in mobile search results.
Only 13% of all websites maintain their ranking in search results across mobile and desktop devices.
If you haven’t looked at your rankings in a while, you may want to do that soon.
You want to remember to check your search engine ranking across devices, not just what shows up in your laptop/desktop browser.
The goal is to get your website in the top ten on all devices.
(Semrush Blog)
17. Google Lens Has Been Used to Answer 8 Billion Visual Search Queries per Month as Of 2022.
Google Lens was launched in 2017. It didn’t take long for it to become a popular and efficient machine learning, AI tool used to identify items and objects.
Google Lens is a mobile application that uses your device’s camera to take a picture then search through its database to bring you results related to the object you want to know about.
Resellers use it to identify things that might be of value for reselling.
For instance, Google Lens may be able to recognize an antique worth thousands of dollars with the click of your phone’s camera.
Google Lens can recognize up to one billion different objects.
It’s still learning, so don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t get everything right all the time.
(Google 2022)
Search Engine Revenue Statistics
We’re dedicated statistics related to revenues in this section.
18. In 2021, The Overall Global Search Engine Market Accounted for $167.02 Billion in Revenues (about $510 per Person in America).
During and since the global pandemic, the search engine sector has experienced a high-demand that wasn’t previously predicted.
It’s higher than what the previous expectations revealed.
The demand in the search engine market is expected to achieve $348.80 billion (about $1,100 per person in America) by 2028, representing a CAGR of 11% over the forecasted period.
As we have discussed in other statistics in this article, Google is the leader of them all but the top companies in this industry also include Microsoft, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, and others.
The data regarding the overarching revenues regarding search engines was $137.08 billion in 2021.
(Business Research Insights)
19. In 2022, Google’s Revenue Came to $224.47 Billion, Which Mostly Comes from Its Advertising Revenue.
The Google search engine revenues come mostly from advertising. That number for 2022 waws $224.47 billion (USD).
Google’s overall revenue for 2022 came to $279.8 billion. Google’s parent company,
Alphabet earned the ranking of second among the world’s internet companies in 2021.
Google also generates revenue through the Google Play Store where its users can buy apps, movies, books, games, and other digital content.
Google has the Chrome browser, Android mobile phones and services, Google TV and other products and applications from which to earn revenues.
(Statista 2023 6)
20. YouTube Ads Made up Around 10% of All Google’s Revenues in 2021.
During the first quarter of 2021, which is the most recent data about Google revenues, YouTube generated 10% of Google’s overall revenues for the year.
YouTube is owned by Google, but it’s also considered a search engine in the video streaming realm.
In fact, YouTube generated a whopping $6.03 billion during the first quarter of 2021 alone, which is currently the highest ever recorded year-on-year rise that represents a growth of 49.13%.
While there is always the potential for a new record figure for YouTube revenues, this is the biggest thus far and it happened in the throes of the global pandemic.
(Business Quant)
Bonus Statistics
This section will discuss other search engine statistics that we wanted to share with our readers.
21. 57% of Russian Government Requests for Content Removal from Google in 2022 Was for National Security Purposes.
There are several reasons that government entities might want to have content removed from Google.
Many times, it’s for national security purposes, which accounts for 60% of content removal requests.
These requests for removal from Google were made during the first six months of 2022 and were mostly based on the impact of national security.
Other reasons for removal requests included copyright (24%), drug abuse (6%), regulated goods and services (4%), fraud (2%), hate speech and suicide promotion (both 1%), and other (%)
(Statista 2023 7)
22. “YouTube” and “Amazon” Tied for The Top of 100 Google Searches in America as Of March 2023.
The thing that search engines are for is searching.
Searching for words, phrases, people, places, things, etc, is why we use search engines.
The most recent data shows that “youtube” and “amazon” were the top searches in the United States on Google.
These two search terms tied at number one out of the top 100 Google searches in the United States.
Each one experienced a search volume of 151,000,000. The third and fourth on the list are “facebook” (124,000,000 searches), and “wordle” (101,000,000).
Ironically, “google” is the fifth most searched term on Google with 83,100,000 searches as of March 2023.
(Exploding Topics 2023)
23. In 2021, HubSpot Reported that The Average Internet User Performs Three to Four Searches Online per Day.
The statistics we found showed that on average, people using the internet conduct three to four searches a day.
Also, the average keyword length is 1.9 words. People are using shorter keywords now to get results.
Why?
Because keywords with more than five words in the query achieve 10 times fewer searches on average as compared to one to three total keywords in search queries.
It is important to use the proper keyword whether you’re searching or marketing.
(HubSpot 2021)
24. 46% of All Google Search Queries Are Looking for Local Information.
Nearly half (46%) of all searches conducted on Google are people seeking local information.
Another 97% of overall searches online are for finding a local business.
Nearly one third of internet users seek local business information at least one per week.
Additionally, 86% of all consumers depend on the internet to help them find local businesses.
Likewise, over 50% of near me searches end in a local store visit.
In-store purchases resulting from local searches happen 78% of the time.
This means that local mobile searches most often result in buying something in the store.
(HubSpot 2022)
25. Studies Have Shown that Internet Users Believe that Search Engines Are the Best Sources for Finding Restaurants and Stores and For Checking the Weather.
A study reported by the Reuters Institute included information about people who use search engines.
They learned that people find search engines a viable source for checking the weather and for looking for local shops and restaurants.
This includes data gathered from people traveling because they are in unfamiliar surroundings and need help finding where to shop, eat, and how to be ready for the weather.
People also use this in places near their homes to find new shops and restaurants.
(Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021)
26. Video Content on Your Landing Page Improves Your Chances of Being on Google’s First Page by Over 50%.
If you’re a business, brand, or a marketer, you need to know that using video content on your website’s landing page will increase your chances of getting on Google’s first page by over 50%.
Also, if you’re not utilizing landing pages for your website, you are missing out on the best marketing tactic you can use.
High-quality imagery and videos are crucial when you’re using them on your landing page.
Besides using your meta details to get noticed, you need solid and quality content.
Remember that your textual content needs to contain an average of 2,000 or more words to get noticed by Google.
(Asset Digital)
FAQs
Why Do I Need to Use a Search Engine?
You can use a search engine to look for anything. If you want to know the latest news, you can use a search engine.
If you need to know the weather, go search the weather in your local area or where you’re traveling. Perhaps a new restaurant is in town and you want to know where it is.
If you’re new to a place, you may need to use search engines to find dining, medical care, hospitals, dentists, pharmacies, etc.
How Do Search Engines Provide Such Fast Results?
Special software programmed into search engines help them to find appropriate results for your queries.
These programs include crawlers, robots, and spiders. The robot is responsible for sending information about new websites so they can be properly indexed for searches.
Each search engine has its own protocols and programming they use to quickly get you relevant results.
What Is the Biggest Search Engine in The World?
Google is the biggest and most used search engine in the world. These statistics prove that.
Why Would a Marketer Need to Know About Search Engine Statistics?
Statistics show marketers how people are using the search platforms.
For instance, if most people use one to three word queries, or if using more than three words get better results.
We addressed the fact that using one to three keywords per query is the most common way people use search engines.
We would need an article to answer this fully, but marketers need to understand more about how people use search engines to ensure their SEO strategies can achieve first page rankings across devices.
Conclusion
We have discussed search engine statistics across the globe and which ones are used the most and where.
We used the most recent data we could access from using search engines, which could seem ironic.
So, one use for search engines is to research search engine facts and figures.
We also addressed the revenues of Google and how this platform earns revenue.
We focused on Google mostly because it’s the one most used by the world.
You should have some idea of the who, why, what, and where about search engines.
Who uses them? Where do search engine users live? Why do they use search engines?
What search engines are used? We believe we have answered all these questions.
When and how do you use search engines?
Which search engines do you use? How relevant was the information in this article to you?
We hope you have learned something new about search engines and how they work.
Also, that you have a better understanding of how the world uses search engines and why.
If you have never heard of some of the search engines we mentioned, we hope you will learn more about them.
If you’re a marketer, these statistics should help you with creating marketing strategies, or at least brainstorm.
If you’re not a marketer, you may just find these search engine statistics interesting.