Search Engine Use and Market Share

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006.

A recent press release from Nielsen/NetRatings provides statistics on U.S. search engine usage and market share. Data from approximately 60 search engines reveals a 69% increase in the total number of searches from 4 billion in January of 2005 to 5.7 billion in January of 2006.

What is causing this increase in traffic: more search engine users, more searches per user, or a combination of both? Perhaps a substantial investment in the Nielsen/NetRatings report would divulge this information, but it is not provided in the press release. It is probably safe to assume that this increase is combination of both. We can infer this somewhat vaguely from a quote by chief analyst Ken Cassar, “Web users are conducting more searches not because they can’t find what they’re looking for, but because search as a utility has become deeply ingrained into people’s everyday lives.”

The “Big Three” continue to dominate search: Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. In what is presumably a summary of searches only on their primary domains (not their partner sites), Google remains comfortably on top.