Research

Things I measured while building this site, written up with the data behind them. Each study publishes its aggregates as a file you can download and check the page against.

• Keyword difficulty is a weak signal. I checked 12,512 search results pages to see how weak.

  Every keyword tool sells a 0 to 100 difficulty score. I bought the actual first page of Google for 12,512 queries and counted who was standing on it. A low score was wrong 28% of the time, and the number that did predict a way onto the page was the weakest site already there.

  5 September 2026
• Every kind of browser-tool search grew after 2023. Developer utilities did not.

  Yearly search volumes for 6,823 tool queries with a full five-year history, by the job they name. Six categories rose +16% to +92% from 2023 to 2025. Developer utilities rose +5%.

  5 September 2026
• What Google's first page looks like when you search for a tool.

  4,123 first pages read for the boxes Google adds and 12,512 for who the results are: an AI Overview on 42%, YouTube on 30%, and no major brand at all on 37%.

  5 September 2026