Google Share sees slight decline
This entry was posted on 1/21/2008 12:21 PM and is filed under Engines,Google,Thoughts.
In November last year, I wrote a piecefor SEMPO
Global Search Blog regarding the plateau that I see for Google. Earlier this month, I
submitted a piece to Search Engine Watch which included my belief that
there will be a reduction in Google share by Q4. I was wrong. It
actually happened in December 2007. Google is down slightly to 56.3% in December from 57.7% in November.
Ranked by Searches (U.S.)| Provider | Searches
(000) | Share of
Searches | Searches per
Searcher |
| Google Search | 4,062,536 | 56.3% | 37.9 |
| Yahoo! Search | 1,273,688 | 17.7% | 22.4 |
| MSN/Windows Live Search | 995,899 | 13.8% | 31.7 |
| AOL Search | 339,761 | 4.7% | 10.0 |
| Othere..... | | | |
Source: Nielsen Online, MegaView Search
Why
does this matter. Well, considering that Google is and will remain the
leader in search for the foreseeable future and that search will
continue to grow, it doesn't really affect the numbers in any negative
way, yet. It does, however, provide an opening. One through which we
can see that other options are viable and profitable. As this happens,
more opportunities can fall upon Microsoft and Yahoo!.
I
believe that the market needs the competition. Even as analysts call
(SEW) for Yahoo! to break off search and outsource to Google
I think there is a long term benefit even to Yahoo! shareholders in the
dedicated Yahoo! effort to search. With more brand dollars being
considered for search, and the search product itself expanding to
potentially include images and different ways to deliver results, these calls for divesting the core technology are premature.
With continued strength in the display / publisher side and the nascent
nature of search (relative to the potential applications), Yahoo! is
uniquely positioned to package search and display advertising to
optimize the ROI for advertisers. Give up the tech side of search, and
the synergistic opportunities go way. 
