In Britain, Google UK is king – no surprises there. What’s interesting is that Google Image Search is also doing incredibly well, and a report from Hitwise (released earlier today) examines the relationship between the two.
“[W]e profiled Google Image Search, the top website visited after Google in the UK,” announces Heather Hopkins, Hitwise UK’s vice president of research. “More than three-quarters of UK visits to Google UK Image Search come from the Google search engine. The website ranked #18 among All Categories of websites and it has ranked among the top 20 websites each week in the past year based on UK visits.”
Hopkins’s findings make sense – the average user isn’t likely to use different search engines for specialized purposes. Heck, even the true technophile should find it easier to stick with just one engine (assuming the engine works well). But Google’s dominance is always an impressive thing to behold.
“As you would expect, Google Image Search dominates the Graphics and Clip Art category, ranking #1 every week for the past two years,” the Hitwise VP continues. “Google UK Image Search received 60.48% of UK visits to the Graphics and Clip Art category. Combined with the dot com site, Google Images captured 69.09% of category visits.”
And there are no indicators that the trend will turn against the search engine giant; people seem content with its Image Search. “Consumers spent an average of just over 10 minutes on the website last week, indicating that they are spending time viewing multiple images,” reports Hopkins. Multiple images getting viewed, multiple sites performing well – it’s smooth sailing for Google in the UK.
