Paid Search Engines in India:
Google 81.4% market share
Yahoo! 9.4% market share
Ask 1.9% market share
Microsoft 1.7% market share
Rediff India 1.5% market share
Others 4.1% market share

About India:
India represents one of the world’s oldest civilizations, which grew out of the old Indus Valley that flourished in the 3rd and 2nd Millennia BC.
The Golden Age ushered in by the Gupta Dynasty in the 4th to 6th Centuries A.D. saw a marked advancement in science, arts, literature, architecture, and Hindu religion over a period of 700 years.
In the 6th Century, the Gupta Empire came to an end with the attack of the Turks and Afghans from Central Asia. With the disintegration of the Gupta rulers, India fell into the hands of numerous regional kingdoms.
In the early 16th century, Babur from the ancient capital city of Kabul conquered Northern India and established the Moghul Dynasty, which was to rule India for three centuries. Babur, an orthodox Sunni Muslim, also helped propagate the Muslim faith.
Emperor Babur died after only three years in India, but his empire was passed on from one ruler to another, including Shah Jahan, India’s ruler who built the famous architectural marvel Taj Mahal in 1631 to express his grief over the loss of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, while giving birth to their 14th child.
In 1738, Shah Nadir from Persia crossed the Indus and defeated the army of the Moghul emperor to capture India. This was to be India’s first major single disaster, followed by more serious long-term threats when war broke out between the British and the French on Indian soil.
The two emerging superpowers from Europe used separate local political puppets to advance their interests, but the British proved to be more cunning in exploiting local alliances to gain political control of much of India.
The British ruled India until 1947, when Indian civilian leaders Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru used passive, non-violent resistance to thwart British rule and gain independence.
India’s declaration of independence also meant the creation of two separate states defined by two major religions in the subcontinent – India for Hindu and Pakistan for Muslim. The division did not stop the conflict between the two new nations, which fought over religious principles and territorial rights. The conflict resulted in more division and the birth of a separate nation – Bangladesh from what used to be East Pakistan.
Since the 1990s, India has been posting an average GDP economic growth rate of 7.0 percent, which is one of the highest globally. Despite the economic crisis spawned by the U.S. financial meltdown, India continues to post impressive figures. In 2009, it posted 6.6 per cent, the 12th highest in the world.
India has a diverse open economy that includes traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, modern industries, and services. While more than half of India’s workforce are into agriculture, services account for a major source of economic growth, representing for more 50 percent of output despite using only one-third of its labor force. It draws strength from a large base of educated English-speaking population who are into the export of information technology services and software as I.T. workers.
Despite its rapid growth, India’s GDP per capita of $3,100 is still one of the lowest in the world. Even after more than 50 years of independence from British rule, massive poverty is still very much a shameful reality in the streets of India.
India has the world’s largest number of poor people living in a single country, with around 400 million people surviving in abject poverty caused by illiteracy, population growth exceeding economic growth rate, and protectionist policies.
There has been noticeable growth in the middle class, virtually absent in 1947, in recent years. But even with its robust economic growth in the last 20 years, the figures are not enough to eradicate poverty especially in the countryside. India needs more years of sustained development to reclaim its ancient claim as the cradle of civilization of South Asia and its pre-colonial glory years of wealth and opulence.