Google saw healthy growth in the number of search queries on its core U.S. search engine in January, according to comScore qSearch numbers that came out last night. Google’s query growth rate was 38.4 percent, compared to January, 2008, outpacing the industry’s overall 28.6 percent growth in search queries. Any way you slice it, people are still doing more and more searches, which suggests that the search market is far from saturated.
Compared to December, Google’s query growth rate slowed down slightly (from 42.8%). Yahoo, on the other hand, is the one standout among the major search engines in that its annual growth in search queries accelerated from 17.2 percent in December to 21.6 percent in January. All the other search engines saw a slowdown. (See first table below).
This resulted in Yahoo gaining half a percentage point in overall query market share to 21.0 percent, while Google’s market share dropped by the exact same amount month-over-month to 63.0 percent. Compared to a year ago, however, Google’s market share is still up 4.5 percentage points. (See second table below).
Beyond the core search engines, YouTube generated an estimated 2.92 billion searches in January, up 68 percent from the year before, and slightly up 2.4 percent from December. YouTube represents 24.9 percent of Google’s total searches, and on its own is a s big as Yahoo.
Y/Y Growth In Core U.S. Search Queries, January 2009 (Source: comScore qSearch)
| 38.4% | |
| Yahoo | 21.6% |
| Microsoft | 11.3% |
| Ask | 4.6% |
| AOL | 1.1% |
U.S. Core Search Share, January 2009 (Source: comScore qSearch)
| 63.0% | -0.5% m/m | +4.5% y.y | |
| Yahoo | 21.0% | +0.5% m/m | -1.2% y/y |
| Microsoft | 8.5% | +0.2% m/m | -1.3% y/y |
| AOL | 3.9% | -0.1% m/m | -1.0& y/y |
| Ask | 3.7% | -0.2% m/m | -0.8% y/y |
Click on the image below for a larger table showing stats going back a full year (courtesy of Douglas Anmuth at Barclays Capital).
Could be the result of so many people from the tech industry suddenly sitting at home without a job
I totally agree, with the amount of unemployment these days, people are home searching for jobs to apply to.
I don’t really understand why people would use something else than Google.
It’s the best search engine: others like yahoo or live just bring crap.
Personally I try to avoid using Google if at all possible. Live usually brings up more relvant results, plus it’s a much nicer interface.
Incorrect.
Surely it’s a matter of opinion
@Tim. As you can see most of the world and a growing amount do not agree with you. But that’s okay. You and your friends can use Live while the rest of the world uses Google the best and most popular search engine and for good reason. Google has so much data from so many searches run though it’s superior algorithms that no other search engine can touch it. Live is failure, like Vista!
History repeats itself. Yes we are in a massive recession but we don’t stop living, eating, breathing and using the things we’ve grown accustomed to, including the web.
In 2001 e-commerce was dead. Shortly after amazon went profitable and zappos secretly build a online shoe (bags, accessories…you name it) empire.
In 2009 (online) advertising is dead …
Making history is about getting things done when others drop it because its officially dead.
I use Google only becuse is effective
I agree with all of that Peter.
I personally believe that people should try to find a way to re-invent themselves… to retool their minds to be creative (if possible) and try things that they normally thought wouldn’t work.
Leave speculation for the dogs. Now is the time to try anything and everything, for this is the time when more innovative minds have nothing more to do than sit at home and either wait or search google.
I decided not to wait, nor search google. I decided to build FreeVoiceLine.com because I knew that I could, I just didn’t try it yet. I would rather shoot in every direction than just stare in one.
Can you do one for the UK?
To fill your mind with some self-reinvention and generally cool memes go to Space Collective http://spacecollective.org
It seems Yahoo made the accelerated leap due to either searchmonkey or BOSS products.
I agree – both products are very interesting.
search monkey is the best product in yahoo! search. google doesn’t have any product of this kind.
BOSS queries are not counted in yahoo! search share. BOSS itself is as large as ask.com
http://news.cne...10118008-2.html
that’s quite unexpected. comScore core searches are a subset of all searches – their “definition” is tightly controlled by comScore and the top engines. A year ago the projections were of at most 13-15% annual growth over the next 5 years. comScore must have changed the definition of what a “core search” is … or something more dramatic happened
Yahoo and Live often tend to neglect content hosted in Blogspot blogs. This is not a good thing at all. I feel that both Yahoo and Live should change their policy in this regard. Then, they will be able to bring more accurate and relevant search results.
I am totally against blogspot posts, they are worthless mostly. I would more than happy to see if Google could de-rank most of those articles.
Hi all, can anyone refer me to a company that:
• Owns multiple (retail) websites that they developed, designed, SEO and manage (reports and analysis) in house.
• That can develop, launch and manage multiple websites at the same time because they have proprietary software and/or methods that streamline the process.
Thanks so much.
Interesting, so despite crappy economy Google continues to do well. I am wondering if this is just inertia or naysayers were just off.
Alex, search volume alone doesnt make up their success. We’ll most likely see a drop in overall cost per click prices as marketing budgets are pulled back this year. And if less people are bidding on the same keyword, that will also drop CPC prices further.
Although, the uptick in search volume combined with a drop in cpc for the ppc industry may still put them on top, and growing revenue.
Would be helpful if we could see cpc levels compared against search volumes.
And to add even another layer, show revenue splits with their AdSense publishing partners.
Also, does the search volume take into effect their network of search partners (sites that have google running as their primary search engine) or is this just google.com(uk, etc) primarily?
Weird that the head line is about Google and not about Yahoo which got its share increased for the first time.
agreed with kg, why just about Google ?
does TechCrunch have some sort of an unwritten agreement to always talk about Google even when the interesting bits are elsewhere? Google queries growing month-on-month is more of the same. Yahoo! regaining market share (however minuscule) is what is new. I shall give the benefit of doubt and say TC did not exercise proper judgement here. Peace!
I use google for my most of searches because it is most effective and I dont know why yahoo and live are not so effective like google.
To change to a nearby topic. The question is Ecpm’s Google is seeing off search and in turn what publishers who use adsense are seeing. As one of those publishers we have seen an almost 50% decline in Ecpc, Ecpm, and of course CTR. Yet we have increased traffic. This means (possibly) 1) Google is taking a larger % of that wonderful unknown % they take to increase their books. 2) The quality of advertisers has decreased. 3) Rev/click or willingness of advertisers to pay a higher cpc has decreased.