According to the most recent numbers released on Monday by comScore Networks, Google and Yahoo were the only two of the five top search engines to gain ground in December 2006. Microsoft, Ask, and Time Warner all fell a step behind.
Google’s online properties ate up 47.3% of the search market in December, which was an increase of 0.4% from the previous month. Yahoo’s sites held on to their second place position with 28.5% of the market, which was a 0.3% increase from the previous month.
Microsoft sites declined 0.5% to holding 10.5% of the market, compared to the 11.0% share held in November 2006. Ask Network dropped 0.1% of its share, falling to 5.4% of the market, compared to the 5.5% share held in the previous month. Time Warner Network finished fifth with 4.9%, a 0.2% drop from the previous month’s 5.1% share.
Online users in the U.S. conducted 6.7 billion queries in December, which was a 1% increase from the previous month’s total.
For the year, search query volume grew 30% from December of 2005.
Google garnered 3.2 billion queries in December 2006, while Yahoo received 1.9 billion queries, MSN received 713 million, Ask received 363 million, and Time Warner Network received 335 million.
Despite Google’s continued dominance in the search engine realm, the race is far from over. The search engine world is evolving, with sandbox endeavors from Google, MSN, and Ask giving users previews of alternative interfaces and search experiences that could very well hint at what’s to come in the next stage of search. Niche search engines are also becoming interesting players to keep an eye on.
Also, Wikiasari’s impending entrance into the search game could shake things up a bit in 2007.
Source:
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1167
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