SEL: Yahoo & MSN Closing the Google Gap

check out the Digging into Search swicki at eurekster.com

Search marketing in the new media era.

January 13, 2005

Yahoo & MSN Closing the Google Gap

Chris Sherman analyzes recent data from Keynote that suggests Yahoo and MSN may be gaining market share on Google.

Since the last study, Yahoo! has boosted the number of users who said they would consider the site as their primary search engine by more than 20% and MSN by almost 30%.

Perhaps the most significant finding in the study is that searchers are more fickle than many people think. Even though 75% of users say they have a favorite search engine that they turn to first, 50% will turn to another search engine as an alternative if they don't get satisfactory results.

And surprisingly, as many as 20% of users regularly use different search engines for different types of searches, meaning all the major search engines are getting significant exposure.

Hence, email, desktop search, toolbars etc....they don't want you to leave.

Ask Jeeves also has something to cheer about. While the dark horse of search often doesn't get much credit from the news media, they're winning new search fans. The report found that Ask Jeeves showed a significant increase in overall customer experience rankings. It also found that Ask Jeeves performed as well as Google and Yahoo! when actual user success in conducting complex searches was measured.

Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

...the search industry queries new media