The Profile of a Search Engine User

Firefox 2 includes in its search box Google Suggest and Yahoo LiveSearch. So when you type the first letters of a word, you'll get suggestions from popular searches. It's interesting to compare the userbase of the two search engines by looking at users' queries.

Python is an animal, but also a programming language.



Google users seem to search for specific models of mobile phones, while Yahoo users want general information.



Google users know a simple trick: to find information about a film, type [imdb title-of-the-film]. Yahoo users search for general information.



While those who search for Firefox on Yahoo seem to be interested in finding more information or downloading the browser, Google users try to tweak the browser. As they already have it.



Everybody wants to download music and instant messengers, but Google users are more sophisticated and also like Java, download accelerators and Download Festival, a three day rock/metal/punk festival held annually in England.



Conclusions? Google users are more tech-savvy, more informed and search for specific details. Yahoo users are more interested in media, are more prone to security problems (they search for "free ipod"), and don't know how to find information quickly, so they are usually more distracted.

Also see:
10 powerful uses for Google Suggest
Google users are wealthier