ABSTRACT
According to the P\S\L Consulting Group, Yahoo! was the most frequently used search tool by health professionals (71%) in 1998, followed by AltaVista (58%). 1 This pattern prevailed in all regions of the world, with the exception of Europe where AltaVista appeared to be slightly more popular, and China where Yahoo! predominated. Popularity of search engines among professional searchers was found to differ from the above in an Internet ‘search-off’—45% of searchers used AltaVista, 20% HotBot, 14% Infoseek and 14% Excite. 2
Search Engine Watch provides estimates of search engine popularity from Nielsen//NetRatings 3 and Media Metrix. 4 In 1998, Yahoo! was in the lead (40%), followed by Netscape, MSN and Excite (20-30%). From late 1999 onwards, this trend had changed very little, with Yahoo!’s popularity increasing even further, and Go replacing Excite in the most visited category.
