According to statistics from December 2005, Google continues to lead the search engine market with a 55% market share. The market shares of competitors Yahoo! Search and MSN have decreased. (comparing 2005 with 2004)
The statistics from Nielsen/Net Rating reflect the growing trend of web searches among Americans. With 5.1 billion searches in December 2005, compared to 3.3 billion during the same period last year, this indicates a new approach to information-seeking among Internet users of this era. It’s also worth noting that the growth of the Internet population in the U.S. last year was only 3%. Users tend to start their “expeditions” from search engine websites. Some even use search engines to access popular sites like eBay, even though they could simply type the URL directly into their browser.
Among the three search engines—Google, Yahoo, and MSN—only Google achieved a growth in market share compared to the previous year, increasing by 5.7%. Yahoo experienced a slight decrease of 0.3%, bringing its market share to 21.4%, while MSN suffered a dramatic drop of 3.1%, falling to 14%. Despite the decrease in market share, all three competitors saw an increase in the number of searches conducted. The balance of power is sure to shift if Google successfully enters the Chinese market.
TRAN HUY
