Pick Influential Search Engine By Category, But Yahoo! Safe Bet

Findings from BIGresearch's latest Simultaneous Media Survey show that Yahoo! is the overall #1 search engine choice for most influential on purchase decisions and Google is number 4. Media influence and/or engagement are hot topics in today's ROI driven ad world concludes the report.

Joe Pilotta, VP of Research at BIGresearch. Says "When you look at the impact of Internet Advertising on specific purchase decisions and not just click throughs, the impact of internet advertising is a different story," For example, the influence on electronics purchases showed Google #1 followed by Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and Ask Jeeves.

Influence of Internet Advertising on Purchase Decisions (Ranked by Search Engine Preference)
Electronics Apparel/Clothing Car/Truck Grocery
1. Google 1. Yahoo! 1. MSN 1. AOL
2. Yahoo! 2. AOL 2. Yahoo! 2. Yahoo!
3. MSN 3. MSN 3. Google 3. Ask Jeeves
4. AOL 4. Google 4. Ask Jeeves 4. MSN
5. Ask Jeeves 5. Ask Jeeves 5. AOL 5. Google
Source: BIGresearch, February 2006

"If we tally the ranking of search engines' influence on category purchase decisions...Yahoo! (is) number 1 with a score of 13, with 1st or 2nd place finishes in every category, MSN number 2 at 21, AOL number 3 at 23, Google number 4 at 26 and Ask Jeeves number 5 at 32..." said Pilotta.

As Pilotta points out, share, as measured by Nielsen//Netratings, may not be the precursor of the important influence on purchase.


Google, Yahoo! & MSN Share of Search, June-Nov. 2005 (US Home & Work)
  Share of Searches Share of Searches Searches
Search Engine June 2005 Nov. 2005 (000) in Nov. 2005
Google Search 45.7% 46.3% 2,365,998
Yahoo! Search 21.7% 23.4% 1,194,519
MSN Search 12.2% 11.4% 583,304
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Search, January 2006

Article by Jack Loechner, 21 February 2006.

The original article can be found on MediaPost.