Anyone involved in an Internet-based home business will soon come to recognize importance of search engines as a vehicle to attract potential customers. Since inception of Google in 1998, popularity of using search engines has increased dramatically. Nielsen NetRatings reports that about 114.5 million Americans, or a whopping 39 percent of US population, currently use search engines.
Through February of 2004, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN ranked as two favorite spots on Internet with 87.3 million and 86.2 million unique monthly visitors, respectively, according to figures produced by Nielsen NetRatings.
Microsoft.com, ranked third, with 64.2 million visitors, but this figure is somewhat misleading because this site attracts much of its traffic by repairing flaws in Windows operating system. Google was fourth most popular site with 60.8 million visitors.
The market shares of MSN and Yahoo haven't changed much in past three years while Google has emerged as a powerhouse without spending much of anything on advertising. Google's audience is now approximately six times larger than it was in early 2001, when it was 26th most popular destination on Internet.