According to a recent survey conducted by comScore Media Metrix, Google's reputation as the most popular and powerful search engine is secure. The survey followed the habits of 1.5Million English speaking Internet users in the US, Canada and the UK and has spawned two sets of user-frequency numbers. The first chart shows the percentage of Internet users who conducted their searches at a specific search engine by typing a URL into the address-bar of their browser. The results are hardly surprising but given the dispersal of ownership in the search engine world, somewhat deceptive. For example, AOL owns both AOL Search and Netscape. Numbers for Netscape would be bundled in with AOL's numbers in this survey.

The next set of stats shows the actual distribution of search results based on which search tool is feeding results to the others. Google remains the clear leader in the distribution of search results with over 3/4 of all search engine listings being returned by Google. The results of the survey may appear strange until one remembers that Google powers results from Yahoo, AOL, Netscape and dozens of other search tools.

Regardless of the corporate shenanigans being played out by MSN and Yahoo in their bids to unseat Google, the little, privately owned search tool from the Valley continues to dominate the search engine market. Google shouldn't get too comfortable though. MSN is developing its own search database and will try to make Google the Netscape of the early 2K's. Sooner or later, they will cease providing results powered by Google. The same will be said of Yahoo who, through the purchases of Overture (including AltaVista and AlltheWeb search engines), will soon no longer require Google's services.

2002 was the year search started being taken seriously. 2003 has been the year of the acquisition. 2004 will likely become the year of the great search fallout. Watch for it.

Gameseek is a UK games website offering games, accessories and hardware for all formats including a selection of DVD's. While based in the UK, GameSeek sells products around the world via the Internet. All items are shipped via UK Royal Mail and for your peace of mind are sent as First Class Recorded Delivery. Most orders received are shipped the next business day the orders are placed; unless the product is out of stock.

StepForth has only recently started doing business with GameSeek but our experience thus far has been excellent. Highly responsive and driven by a dedication to making the games people play easier to access, GameSeek is an example of a fast moving, young company which wishes to grow well. Check out their selection of PC and console games and DVDs here.

The other day we received an Email from one of our clients asking our opinion on adding her site to a shopping mall web site. Based on her business and product offerings, we suggested that this was not the right opportunity for her. That's not to say that all content portals or shopping malls are worthless for all people but, in many cases, they don't attract more direct interest than standard search engine listings.

There are, however, several uses for malls and portals. According to the Retail Council of Canada, about 35% of all retail purchases are impulse buys, or items picked up on the spur of the moment, just because the consumer saw the item. Being featured on a popular shopping mall site can expose your products to hundreds of new viewers each day. The same can be said of geographic portals such as the "Shop in Cities" program. The people behind these projects believe they will supplant the Yellow Pages in the coming years. Based on their costs verses typical Yellow Pages advertising costs, they might be correct.

Here is a few questions to ask yourself when considering if you should invest advertising dollars in a portal or shopping mall.

• How will my products be featured on the portal or shopping mall site?
• How will potential customers find my products among others?
• How does the portal or mall market itself on the web? Are there other forms of marketing for the portal or mall? Is this a way to save my own marketing money in the long run?
• Does the shopping site itself have very good search engine placements?
• How many site viewers are there each day? Ignore 'Hit' statistics as hits are extremely vague and easily misconstrued.
• Will involvement improve my placements on traditional search engines?
• Could I make more money by investing advertising dollars elsewhere?
• Am I able to contact a merchant already involved with the portal or mall site?

In some cases, involvement in a shopping mall is good for business while in others it is not. The best advisors are those whose sites are currently listed or have been listed at one time or another on the portal or mall site. Call them up and ask questions. Regardless of whether the experience has been positive or negative, chances are the business owner will tell you about his or her experience. We all love talking about our businesses.