By Aisling Brennan
Online Marketing Account Manager
The latest numbers from ComScore Networks show that the top five search engines accounted for 98.3 percent of all search queries in the US in the second quarter of this year, an increase of more than 4 percent over the same period last year. This movement is quite significant as it highlights the increasing reach the top engines have.
Four of the top five search engines experienced increases in traffic, mostly at the expense of AOL and any other engine not amongst the majors: Google ended the quarter with 37 percent of search queries, the highest percentage since ComScore Networks started tracking search engines (Dec 2003). In the same period last year, Google had 35.3 percent.
The number of search queries on Yahoo!, rose to 30.4 percent from 28.2 percent in 2004, while No. 3 MSN saw an increase to 15.6 percent from 14.5 percent. Ask Jeeves, the No. 5 search engine, performed really well doubling its traffic to 6.1 percent from 3.1 percent.
However America Online Inc., a division of Time Warner Inc., was the only company in the top five to see a decline in search queries, falling to 9.2 percent from 12.9 percent a year ago.
These numbers indicate that the winners are well ahead of the curve in the search market. Survival for the smaller engines depends on either acquisition by a larger engine or the discovery of a niche market. For the majors, the fun is just beginning, as they will have to start stealing market share from each other in order to further increase reach.
With the Search Engine industry booming, and 2005 online ad spend forecast in excess of $12.9bn*, the competition amongst the engines for these dollars is fierce and will only intensify.
Stay tuned for an interesting few months ahead...
* Source: eMarketer
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