Search Engine Statistics

Last updated Jul. 12, 2023.
by Greg R.

Measuring the size of the constantly changing Web search engine databases is a complex task. The following Size Showdowns are based on the hits from actual search results. See also Why size matters. Size statistics last updated Dec. 31, 2002.

Relative Size Showdown: Updated data Dec. 31, 2002.
Rank: 1. Google; 2. AlltheWeb; 3. AltaVista

Freshness Showdown: Updated data May 17, 2003.
How old are the search engine databases?

Change Over Time: Updated data Dec. 31, 2002.
Which databases are reflecting the Web's growth?

Database Overlap: Updated data Mar. 4-6, 2002.
Little overlap between the major search at the page level. Majority of pages found by only one search engine.

Unique Hits Report: Updated data Mar. 4-6, 2002
Of those pages found by only one search engine, see which search engines find the most unique pages.

Dead Links Report: Updated data Feb. 21, 2000.
Frustrated with dead links in search engine results. See which search engine has the most dead links.

Other Showdown Analyses:

Long Word Showdown March 5,  2005: Which search engines can accurately search for very long words.

Total Size Estimate Dec. 31, 2002: Very rough and inaccurate, but based on estimates generated from the Relative Size Showdown.

Title Searching Showdown May 1, 2002: Compares the title search ability of those search engines that support it along with information on phrase searching and multiple word searching in titles.

Google Database Components March 4-6, 2002: Compares the components of the Google Web database based on their reports and those of actual searches.

Google's Unindexed URLs March 4-6, 2002: Provides an explanation and example of Google's barely-indexed URLs.

Excite vs. Google: Contradictory Directions, June 29, 2000: comparison of the opposite decisions made by these two search engines.

The Half Billion Crew: Google, Inktomi GEN3, & WebTop, June 29, 2000: an analysis of the claims made by three search engines for indexing 500 million Web pages.

July '99 Nature Article Analysis July 9, 1999: a summary and analysis of the article "Accessibility and Distribution of Information on the Web" published in Nature which estimated the publicly indexable Web at 800 million pages as of Feb. 1999 and showed similar results to those reported by Search Engine Showdown.