Except in the Philippines.
Here, most everyone uses Yahoo. 12.1% of visitors referred to this site by a search engine, was referred by Google. Can you guess how many percent used Yahoo? 86.3%. I'm not sure but I'm assuming that most visitors to my site are local. Some are looking for the latest chx nude pics, some researching about famous Philippine writers, and some even about Yellow Cab Pizza. Anyway, my point is most of them yahooed it.
I think I know why.Just like Friendster, most everyone here uses Yahoo Messenger. And I mean everyone. I kid you not but in my office, people just YM each other. Even if they're just two desks away. And that's not an isolated thing. I have a feeling most offices are like that.
And with Yahoo Messenger, it's all but natural to use Yahoo Mail. And yes, even use Yahoo to search the web.
One big reason for the success of Yahoo Messenger (and Yahoo Mail) is its ability to send SMS messages to mobile phones. That by itself, in my opinion is why Yahoo works here. There are standalone apps that does this but Yahoo has it integrated into YM.
Not to diss Yahoo. But I'm a Google fanatic. From GMail to Picasa to Google Desktop, to Google Earth, and to most of all, Blogger. I'm Google all the way. I don't know if Google has it's eyes here. But if Google is, I'm rooting for them. It'll be a real tough challenge but I'm rooting for Google. I kid you not when I say that Google is a very little David if it wants to fight mighty mighty yahoo here.
(Gyahoogle Image courtesy of Google Blogoscoped)
