Search Engine Popularity

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comScore Releases June 2008 U.S. Search Engine Rankings
July 18, 2008: 01:41 PM EST

RESTON, Va., July 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. In June 2008, Americans conducted 11.5 billion core searches, representing a 7-percent gain versus May.

June 2008 U.S. Core Search Rankings

In June, Google Sites retained its lead in the U.S. core search market capturing 61.5 percent of the searches conducted, down slightly from 61.8 percent in May. Google was followed by Yahoo! Sites (20.9 percent, up from 20.6 percent in May), Microsoft Sites (9.2 percent, up from 8.5 percent in May), Ask Network (4.3 percent), and AOL LLC (4.1 percent).

comScore Core Search Report* June 2008 vs. May 2008 Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch 2.0

			Point Change
			Jun-08 vs.
Search Engine	May-08	Jun-08	May-08
Google	61.8 %	61.5 %	-0.3
Yahoo	20.6 %	20.9 %	0.3
Microsoft MSN	8.5 %	9.2 %	0.7
ASK	4.5 %	4.3 %	-0.2
AOL	4.5 %	4.1 %	-0.4

* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

Americans conducted 11.5 billion searches at the core search engines, representing a 7-percent increase versus May. Google Sites handled more than 7 billion core searches (up 6 percent from May), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.4 billion (up 9 percent), and Microsoft Sites with more than 1 billion (up 15 percent).

March 2008 U.S. Core Search Rankings

In March, Google Sites extended its share of core searches to 59.8 percent, up from 59.2 percent the previous month. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 21.3 percent, followed by Microsoft Sites (9.4 percent), AOL LLC (4.8 percent), and Ask Network (4.7 percent).

comScore Core Search Report* March 2008 vs. February 2008 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch 2.0
Core Search Entity	Share of Searches (%)
Core Search Entity	Feb-08	Mar-08	Point Change Mar-08 vs. Feb-08
Total Core Search	100.0%	100.0%	0.0
Google Sites	59.2%	59.8%	0.6
Yahoo! Sites	21.6%	21.3%	-0.3
Microsoft Sites	9.6%	9.4%	-0.2
AOL LLC	4.9%	4.8%	-0.1
Ask Network	4.6%	4.7%	0.1

Americans conducted 10.8 billion searches at the core search engines, representing a 9-percent gain versus February. Each of the five core search engines experienced search query gains during the month. Google Sites saw more than 6.4 billion core searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.3 billion, and Microsoft Sites with 1 billion.

Share Of Searches: July 2006
The chart below shows the percentage of online searches done by US home and work web surfers in July 2006 that were performed at a particular search engine. Internal site searches, such as those to find material within a particular web site, are not counted in these totals. The activity at more than 60 search sites makes up the total search volume upon which percentages are based -- 5.6 billion searches in this month.

Only "search specific" traffic is counted toward the figures below. This means that only visits deemed to be search-related were counted in the totals. That helps prevent non-search traffic at portals (such as visits to get email) from polluting the data.

A panel of more than 42,000 home and work surfers was measured to estimate these figures. Because a web surfer may visit more than one service, the combined totals exceed 100 percent.

Share Of Searches: July 2006

Top 15 Search Destinations
Home & Work Users, June 2004

KEY: GG=Google, YH=Yahoo, MSN=MSN, AOL=AOL, AJ=Ask Jeeves. OVR=Overture, MY=MyWay.com, INF=Information.com, LY=Lycos Networks, WS=WebSearch.com, IS=InfoSpace Networks, NS=Netscape Search, AV=AltaVista, MS=Microsoft.com, HB=HighBeam.com.

The chart below shows the most popular search sites in the United States, as based on audience reach for January 2004. Audience reach is the percentage of US home and work internet users estimated to have searched on each site at least once during the month through a web browser or some other "online" means. For January 2004, there were an estimated 151 million active at home and at work internet users in the US.

Top 5 Search Destinations
Home & Work Users, January 2004

KEY: GG=Google, YH=Yahoo, MSN=MSN, AOL=AOL, AJ=Ask Jeeves

The chart below shows the most popular search sites in the United States, as based on audience reach for January 2003. Audience reach is the percentage of US home and work internet users estimated to have searched on each site at least once during the month through a web browser or some other "online" means. For January 2003, there were an estimated 134 million active at home and at work internet users in the US.

US Digital Media Universe Audience Reach
Home & Work Users, January 2003

October 2002 - Popularity of Engines and Directories

For October 2002, there were an estimated 129 million total internet users online in the US at work or at home, for August 2002, there were an estimated 122 million total internet users online in the US at work or at home. The chart below shows the most popular search sites in the United States, as based on audience reach for October 2002.

August 2002 - Popularity of Engines and Directories

KEY: YH=Yahoo, MSN=MSN, GG=Google, AOL=AOL, AJ=Ask Jeeves, OVR=Overture (GoTo), IS=InfoSpace;AV=AltaVista, NS=Netscape, LS=LookSmart, LY=Lycos

January 2002 - Popularity of Engines and Directories

KEY: MSN=MSN, YH=Yahoo, GG=Google, AOL=AOL, AJ=Ask Jeeves, LS=LookSmart, ISP=InfoSpace, OVR=Overture (GoTo), NS=Netscape, AV=AltaVista

The results that each engine returns on a given keyword search, can fluctuate from day to day. Every day billions of people use search engines to find information on products and services needed for their home or business. Most turn to search engines by using keyword or keyword phrases to narrow their searches in these vast databases. These prospects need to find your web site in order to see it.

Search engines can sometimes return millions of results (sites) to browse through. Typically, the average user will not scan much further than 30 listings (approx. 3 pages) before moving on to the next search engine. That is why search engine ranking is so important.

Keyword Analysis
Search engines and directories use keywords to find relevant web sites. You need to know which keywords and phrases customers are using to find your site. Once these words are discovered, this data can be used to optimize your web site. Since some search engines can take up to 6 months to list your site and others will take only weeks, you'll want to get it right the first time. Keywords can often be changed, but they need to be analyzed to see which ones are pulling Internet traffic, and which ones aren't.