Google Market Share Grows
The 10,000 lb. gorilla is getting heavier. So says a recent report by comScore. Google sites (www.google.com, www.aol.com, etc.) increased their market share in December to 47.3%, compared to 28.5% for Yahoo and 10.5% for Microsoft.
The numbers themselves aren’t as important as the trends: Google continues to grow, Yahoo grew more percentage-wise and thus is moving in the right direction (recent press and commentary notwithstanding), and Microsoft lost substantial ground. The also-rans of Ask and the Time Warner Network continue are slowly fading.
From an SEO standpoint, this means that Google is the real target. Great rankings are easier to achieve in Yahoo and Microsoft, but they’re also worth a lot less in terms of total exposure. Still, being a proponent of SEO as a series of best practices, this shouldn’t have any impact on the techniques used.
Google’s market share is more important for advertising decisions, although our priorities have not change: Use AdWords first, not just because it’s a far better and more sophisticated program than that of Microsoft or Yahoo, but because it is also the one that will show your ads to the most users. If you can find advertising bargains on the others due to lack of competition, more power to you, but we aren’t finding many anymore.
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