How Do You Search The Web Using Your Mac?

Google is the most popular search engine in the world, right? How do people use Google to find information on the internet?

Take a clue from Mac360’s list of search terms. It ain’t a pretty sight. Internet users use search engines with, uh, um, a little imagination.

I read somewhere recently that one of the most popular search terms used on Google was the word “google.” Go figure. You know life has changed when a proper noun gets used as a verb.

The term “Google it” is right smack in the middle of our 21st century vernacular. We know what it means and use it accordingly. Can you imagine someone telling you to “MSN Search it?” Even “Yahoo it” sounds, well, it’s just wrong in so many ways.

Mac360 has a little search engine built in to the site’s content management system. The search terms are pretty much what you’d expect. The word “free” shows up often. That makes Alexis feel as if her contributions are recognized.

We also track the Google search terms in our web server logs and they provide some rather interesting insight into what people are looking for on the web. The number one search term on Google for Mac 360 is “mac360.” Go figure.

High on the list of Google search terms that bring internet users to Mac360 is “sync.” Then “gadgets vs widgets.” In the Top 10 Search Terms this week was this phrase, “Microsoft Office For Mac 2007.” Of course, it doesn’t exist. Yet. We’ll get Mac Office 2000-whatever later in 2007.

We ran an article last year about how to “pimp out your MacBook Pro.” The word “pimp” seems to garner plenty of attention from Mac users.

Googling is almost a pleasure sport and “most popular browsers for Mac” is a search term that makes the Top 10 List for the week. One of the most recent search terms to get caught on the list was a singular “firewire cable does not fit.”

Obviously, some poor Mac user was having a problem and turned to Google for assistance. That’s common. Almost without thinking, whenever I need a little information on almost anything, the first place I head to is Google.

The phrase “macs catch on fire” popped into the Top 10 Search Term List for Mac360 this week. Does that mean people are concerned that a Mac might catch fire, or they’re looking for a way to put out the fire.

If your Mac is on fire, Google is not the first place you want to go.

Most of us at Mac360 don’t use screen savers. Except Bambi. She’s attracted to anything that glitters. Interestingly, another Top 10 Search Term from Google was “mac screensaver options.”

That had the same number of Mac users as did the phrase “bambi supermodel.” Go figure again.

May I assume that you use Google and one or two or three other search engines? Mac360’s web server logs indicate that Google searches for our site dwarf those of Yahoo, MSN, and Ask by about eight to one. Total.

How do you use Google? Has it become a verb for you? What other search engines are on your list and why? How do they rate when compared to Google?