Are Yahoo & MSN catching Google

Ellio · #1 (**permalink**) 12-27-2005, 12:00 PM

Thought this may be of interest:

Quote:

December 27, 2005
By Nielsen//NetRatings
Yahoo! is most visited search engine for the week ending December 11.

Top 10 Online Search Engines/Portals & Communities Destinations

Brand or Channel Unique Audience
(000) Active Reach /(%) Time Per Person /(hh:mm:ss)
Yahoo! 69,659 / 53.9 / 1:11:56
MSN 61,280 / 47.41 / 0:38:48
Google 56,150 / 43.44 / 0:20:27
AOL 49,643 / 38.41 / 2:09:05
MySpace 14,775 / 11.43 / 0:54:09
Lycos Network 9,360 / 7.24 / 0:04:49
Ask Jeeves 6,454 / 4.99 / 0:05:02
Netscape 6,407 / 4.96 / 0:17:31
Blogger 6,328 / 4.9 / 0:07:45
AT&T 4,579 / 3.54 / 0:29:33

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

digitallabz · #2 (**permalink**) 12-28-2005, 09:32 AM

Still Google is the best for me.

Submit Free Articles

**brian.mark** · #3 (**permalink**) 12-28-2005, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ellio

Yahoo! is most visited search engine for the week ending December 11.

Top 10 Online Search Engines/Portals & Communities Destinations

You've got some consistency problems there. Portals is what throws that off. People with Yahoo mail are included in those Yahoo stats. People with MSN email are included in the stats. That explains the longer time spent on Yahoo and MSN as well.

Nielsen's stats are interesting, but you've got to be careful which ones you look at. Number of searches is a bit better, although one of the most common searches on MSN and Yahoo has typically been "google".

Brian.

Ellio · #4 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 04:25 AM

Quote:

Ellio wrote:
Yahoo! is most visited search engine for the week ending December 11.

Top 10 Online Search Engines/Portals & Communities Destinations

You've got some consistency problems there. Portals is what throws that off. People with Yahoo mail are included in those Yahoo stats. People with MSN email are included in the stats. That explains the longer time spent on Yahoo and MSN as well.

Nielsen's stats are interesting, but you've got to be careful which ones you look at. Number of searches is a bit better, although one of the most common searches on MSN and Yahoo has typically been "google".

Brian.

This should have read: Ellio quoted...

Not my info just a quote from Neilsen.

dburdon · #5 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 08:55 AM

Its interesting to see the Nielsen stats. However, in the UK Google still commands 65-70% of all search traffic.

Ellio · #6 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 12:13 PM

I thought it relevant as we have started to gain an increasing number of enquiries via Yahoo recently.

Google is obviously still king but maybe the other two are catching up.

ADAM Web Design · #7 (**permalink**) 12-29-2005, 04:57 PM

I'm inclined to believe the stats to a certain extent (although I'd love to see the hoser versions.)

Google took a hit to their R-Cred (my new term for relevancy credibility...word life, gangstaz!) post-Jagger, and as the database has grown, problems involving stale results, spam, and to a small degree lack of relevancy have occurred.

And, as the Dark SEO team demonstrated, Google can be manipulated.

http://pr10.darkseoteam.com/

MSN has improved its crawler in a big way, on the other hand, and appears to be making strides towards providing a half-decent index. Yahoo! I dunno...they're too busy being a "portal" to really focus on search like they should lately and it shows in a lot of the results.

dburdon · #8 (**permalink**) 12-30-2005, 03:55 PM

MSN are definitely looking fresher than Google.

bbott · #9 (**permalink**) 12-31-2005, 02:40 AM

this month Yahoo! brought in a lot more visitors than Google. MSN as usuall is slacking...

williamc · #10 (**permalink**) 01-01-2006, 11:18 AM

generally nielson has shown google as the top dog, this is definately a different result set than we are used to seeing. So whether or not it takes mail, etc into consideration (which I am sure it does), it still shows people are moving around a bit more than they used to.

CreditFN · #11 (**permalink**) 01-01-2006, 01:06 PM

Google powers AOL searches, so if you combine the two numbers Google powers twice as many searches as Yahoo! and MSN.

Google has strategic leaps to make in order to catch up with Yahoo! and MSN because of their existing user bases. Though, don't forget it was not long ago that Google powered search results for those who are now seen as their biggest competitors.

Google currently is the only site focused on the best search results, and the public is starting to become aware of this. Don't let these stats fool you.

williamc · #12 (**permalink**) 01-01-2006, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CreditFN

Google currently is the only site focused on the best search results, and the public is starting to become aware of this. Don't let these stats fool you.

Actually for my sites, i find yahoo/msn relvence better lately. Especially after Jagger.

globallink · #13 (**permalink**) 01-01-2006, 03:45 PM

I'm somewhat new to search engine optimization, but as I have done searches on my relevant topics, it seems that MSN has been providing more relevant search results than Google recently. In the past I have always used Google exclusively, but I do think we may see MSN and Yahoo eat away at Google's market share over time.

JaneEllen · #14 (**permalink**) 01-01-2006, 04:18 PM

Apparently the stats are proving what I'd already found - during December at least I found more relevant answers to searches on MSN and Yahoo than on Google. Perhaps that's because I was looking to buy something, not for background information. Google seems to be skewed toward informational pages lately.

williamc · #15 (**permalink**) 01-01-2006, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaneEllen

Google seems to be skewed toward informational pages lately.

That matches what I am seeing too. G seems to favor adsense pages, which are generally more informational in nature. Can't blame them really, as its good business. We may not like it, but it is.

**brian.mark** · #16 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 01:07 PM

I think our site is bucking the trend of this thread. Not only did Jagger help our retail site, but we saw a HUGE increase in traffic during the holiday season from Google, while MSN and Yahoo only showed the typical 15 - 20% holiday increase we've found from all engines in years past. Google already showed us more traffic than the other 2 combined, so the increase really meant that a larger percentage of our traffic than normal was coming from Google.

In fact, December showed Google going from the typical 56% of search referrals that our site normally sees to having over 71% of the search referrals.

The typical Nielsen report that we see is "Percent of searches", but this isn't that same report. When the new searches report comes out, I expect that to look like what we're used to seeing.

Brian.

bj · #17 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 05:40 PM

As far as my site goes, yahoo and msn barely exist. The traffic primarily comes from Google, blogsearch sites, messageboards, and email/past business/referrals. So do my conversions, which are pretty good. And though I was doing okay before Jagger, I'm doing much better post-Jagger.

These stats boggle my mind when I see how many times both yahoo and msn have spidered my site lately. The Googlebot is through at least three times a week, sometimes more. The other two are through about the same, though they seem to stay longer and spider more.

I guess the simple answer is that the people who are interested in what I have to offer use Google for search and not the other two. The more complex reason can be found, I guess, in how I convert- by being an "authority", though it's hard for me to look at myself that way. Google sure does, though.

I might also mention that most of the Google traffic is coming through pages other than my front page, though that's the page that sees the biggest "lump" of folks coming through. If I add up the small numbers from the hundred or so other entry pages it's three times the value of that lump.

dburdon · #18 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 07:05 PM

Funny how history repeats itself.

Over the Christmas period - in little ol' England - Google had massive press. Google - the algorithm - even got voted as the 7th most powerful person in the UK. Correct me if I'm wrong but its just an algorithm.

This reminds of the press that AOL were getting back in spring 2000.

Tipping point anybody? Or am I the only one that remembers?

Ellio · #19 (**permalink**) 01-11-2006, 04:21 AM

It seems my original info may be wrong:

Quote:

"Google nabbed almost 40 percent of all searches in the U.S., a commanding lead of more than 10 percentage points over Yahoo, which took second place, comScore said on Friday. [...]

Overall, U.S. residents conducted 5.15 billion searches in November, up 9 percent. Google's search sites processed 2.05 billion of those searches, or 39.8 percent, followed by Yahoo sites with 1.52 billion, or 29.5 percent."

Full story:
http://www.itworld.com/AppDev/1634/060109googlewinning/

Ellio · #20 (**permalink**) 01-11-2006, 04:41 AM

However:

Quote:

"Google Inc. leads in online search, but its Web browser toolbar fell to second place in November to Yahoo Inc.'s plug in. [...] Yahoo sites received 48.5 percent of toolbar searches, edging out Google's 46.4 percent."

Full story:
http://www.personaltechpipeline.com/news/175802589

hostlander · #21 (**permalink**) 01-12-2006, 12:28 PM

Today Google takes the first place among the search engines. On the other hand if other rivals like Yahoo want to stay as rival they should do something.