According to a recent survey, Google remains a favourite among search engine users despite worries about recent privacy changes. The survey was conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, surveying users of search engines in the United States. The number of users who preferred Google search engine has increased from 47 percent in the year 2004 to 83 percent.
The search engine in second place was Yahoo with only six percent, in comparison to 2004’s figure of 26 percent. Being the preferred search engine with the largest percentage of users has created a healthy income stream for Google, as advertising revenue increased from $3 billion in 2004 to $36.5 billion in 2011. However, the survey results indicate that the changes to the privacy policy may harm the popularity of Google. The search engine company has been using an increasing amount of personal information gleaned from Google+, which users are not happy about. According to Google, the extra information allows them to target ads to a user, providing greater relevance.
Over two thirds of the recipients didn’t want their movements on the web to be tracked, although it would allow more relevant ads to be displayed. The revised policy lets Google track the personal information of user logged in to over 60 services, which includes search.
As Google is the preferred search engine, it plays a central role in a business search engine optimisation strategy. Some of the changes, like the privacy policy, can make a number of SEO jobs much more complex.
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