Like their neighbors on the other side of the Yellow Sea, South Koreans wouldn't say Google is their go to search engine either. In fact, in January 2010 Google wasn't even the second most popular search engine. Actually, wait, it wasn't the thirst most popular either! The market share breakdown in South Korea looks a little bit like this:
Naver 77%, Daum 11%, Yahoo 5%, Google 2%**
South Korea isn't a communist-Google-hating country, yet Google can only muster a measly 2% of the market share!
The layout of Naver (pronounced Nay-bur) looks like Yahoo but with a lime green twist. Daum (pronounced DAH-oom) is reminiscent of Yahoo also but with a hipper (eBay knock-off) logo.
I know Koreans swear by these 2 search engines, which can be seen advertised all over Seoul, but I just haven't had much experience with either of them.
I occasionally play games on Junior Naver to help teach myself Korean. Daum has these really cool, touch screen kiosks at the subways that you can play around with while you are waiting for a train.
I haven't converted to either search engine yet, but I must say, the maps on both websites are far superior to those of Google. Google Maps is one of the coolest resources on the web. Street View blew my mind the first time I saw it, but the picture quality and additional features of Naver and Daum are just... wow.
Just check out my apartment building. Go ahead and take a stroll around my neighborhood while you're at it.
Now, if you still aren't that impressed, how about a bird's eye view of my apartment?
*So the data I have is from 2009, but I don't think much has changed.
**See for yourself.
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