Search engine metrics: analysis

SearchEngineWatch editor, Danny Sullivan, crunched numbers from Nielson/NetRatings and Comscore to produce two separate but complimentary reports on search engine traffic, usage, and market share, according to both analyst groups:

1) Nielsen NetRatings Search Engine Ratings

2) comScore Media Metrix Search Engine Ratings

Although the statistics were for US markets specifically in December 2004, both reports can be taken as indicative of general trends likely to be effective in UK markets up to near present.

Despite disparity in actual figures, both agree on core general trends - namely, that Google is the clear dominant leader of search, with Yahoo! a distant second, and MSN third.

Nielsen has Google (including through AOL use) as having nearly 62% of search market share, with Yahoo! nearly halfway behind on 32%, and MSN as following close after on 25%.

However, after analysis of comScore research, with distributors fully factored in with suppliers, Danny Sullivan reveals a 3-2-1 distribution of search markets, with Google taking up three times of much of the market as MSN.

Both studies clearly illustratethe market dominance of Google as a search engine in the current climate. However, with Microsoft putting full corporate backing behind its new launched MSN Search, and recent apparent problems with Google search, the market remains open to dymanic changes.