According to surveys, pundits, opinions and convention it should go in there somewhere at the top of a web view. Mobile apps also follow this pattern. I don't really have any other argument other than it's where everyone puts it and it's where users expect it to be. Good enough for me.

Let's see who in the Alexa Top Sites in United States is following convention. I surveyed the top twenty-five websites and yielded the following results:

Alexa 1 - 25

Top of the View Location: 72%

• top-left: 12% (3, 7, 16)
• top-left-center: 16% (1, 2, 5, 15)
• top-center: 16% (4, 13, 20, 25)
• top-right: 28% (6, 8, 10, 18, 21, 22, 23)

Nestled Among Content: 16%

• left-column: 8% (9, 24)
• center-column: 4% (14)
• right-column: 4% (17)

Nowhere: 12%

• didn't have one: 12% (11, 12, 19)

Hint: It belongs at the top, preferably on the right side

I went a little further and scoped out the searchbar location for the 26-50 Top Sites in United States, mostly pr0n and Godaddy customers so I'll save you from the screencaps, and I learned a little more:

Alexa 26 - 50

Top of the View Location: 64%

• top-left: 8% (34, 44)
• top-left-center: 8% (32, 41)
• top-center: 16% (35, 36, 40, 42)
• top-right: 32% (26, 27, 28, 33, 37, 38, 39, 50)

Nestled Among Content: 8%

• left-column: 0%
• center-column: 4% (45)
• right-column: 4% (29)

Nowhere: 28%

none: 28% (30, 31, 43, 46, 47, 48, 49)

Godaddy has two search bars. Please use DNSimple.

So to recap the Top 50 in toto, 68% had the searchbar located at the top of the view, 20% didn't have one or did not apply and only 12% had the searchbar nestled among the content somewhere.

Screencaps

1. Google

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• Type: Search Engine
• Location: top-left-center
• Visibility: prominent; very much bread and butter

2. Facebook

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• Type: Social Media Behemoth
• Location: top-left-center
• Visibility: cluttered; enhanced with dark-blue background

3. YouTube

---

• Type: Low-brow Video Sharing
• Location: top-left
• Visibility: first among equals

4. Yahoo!

---

• Type: Adrift Media Conglomerate
• Location: top-center
• Visibility: cluttered but visible due to color-contrasting techniques

5. Amazon

---

• Type: King of Online Retail
• Location: top-left-center
• Visibility: suffering from fog of war

6. Wikipedia

---

• Type: Killer of Encyclopedia Salesmen, Plagiarism Resource
• Location: top-right
• Visibility: fairly good when you can ignore Jimmy's face

7. eBay

---

• Type: Retail Directory
• Location: top-left
• Visibility: confused and married to filter functionality

8. Twitter

---

• Type: Thought Release Aggregator
• Location: top-right
• Visibility: prominent

9. Craigslist

---

• Type: Directory of Everything
• Location: left-column
• Visibility: hidden, alone, neglected; doesn't compete with core-competent directory

10. LinkedIn

---

• Type: Annoying Recruiter Network
• Location: top-right
• Visibility: cluttered and paired with filtering device

11. Blogger

---

• Type: Something about Blogs
• Location: unknown
• Visibility: none

12. Windows Live

---

• Type: No idea because I'm not signing up
• Location: n/a
• Visibility: looks like a SharePoint POS, probably is

13. MSN

---

• Type: Yahoo! Without the Drama
• Location: top-center
• Visibility: very good

14. Go

---

• Type: I have no idea
• Location: centered on page
• Visibility: prominent

15. Bing

---

• Type: Redmond's Answer to Google
• Location: top-center-left
• Visibility: prominent

16. Pinterest

---

• Type: Awesome Photo Discovery Service
• Location: top-left
• Visibility: high

17. Tumblr

---

• Type: Highbrow Time Wasting for Hipsters
• Location: top-right-column
• Visibility: low

18. PayPal

---

• Type: Awful Payment "Facilitator"
• Location: top-right
• Visibility: okay

19. t.co

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• Type: Twitter uses the t.co domain as part of a service to protect users from harmful activity, to provide value for the developer ecosystem, and as a quality signal for surfacing relevant, interesting Tweets. LOL.
• Location: unknown
• Visibility: none

20. AOL

---

• Type: Oldskool Media
• Location: top-center
• Visibility: high

21. ESPN

---

• Type: Worldwide Corporate Sports Propaganda Leader
• Location: top-right
• Visibility: very much so

22. CNN Interactive

---

• Type: Online News Service
• Location: top-right
• Visibility: can't miss

23. Wordpress

---

• Type: Blogging Platform
• Location: top-right
• Visibility: hidden; activated via icon click

24. Netflix

---

• Type: Aging DVD Rental House
• Location: left
• Visibility: horrible, but they've never been good at it

25. The Huffington Post

---

• Type: Seriously Shocking Headlines
• Location: top-center
• Visibility: low, cannot compete with the noise