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Search Engine Statistics Facts, News, and Trends

2010 Data for Top U.S. Search Providers

March, 2010

Google continues to dominate the top position in the global search engine market, according to the latest 2010 statistics from Nielsen Company. Searches represent the total number of queries conducted at the provider. Example: An estimated 6.0 billion search queries were conducted at Google Search, representing 65.2 percent of all search queries conducted during the given time period.

Google Still Rules the Search Engine Market

December, 2009

Google is holding its leading position in the global search market, according to a new study from comScore.

Google leads the U.S. core search market with 65.7 percent of all searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! (17.3 percent), and Microsoft (Bing) (10.7 percent). Ask captured 3.7 percent of the search market, followed by AOL with 2.6 percent.

* 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.

Google receives 64 percent of all U.S. searches in Aug. 2007

“Google accounted for 63.98 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending September 1, 2007. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 22.87, 7.98 and 3.41 percent respectively.

Search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories. Comparing August 2007 to August 2006, the Travel, Entertainment and Business and Finance categories received double digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines.”

Percentage of US Searches Among Leading Search Engines
Domain	Aug-07	Jul-07	Aug-06
www.google.com	63.98%	64.35%	59.99%
search.yahoo.com	22.87%	22.13%	22.73%
search.msn.com	7.98%*	8.79%*	11.86%
www.ask.com	3.49%	3.21%	3.37%
Note: Data is based on sample of 10 million US Internet users.
Source: Hitwise

Retail Websites Receive 25 Percent Of Their Traffic From Search Engines

Over past two years, significant changes have occurred in the way U.S. Internet users search. The following are some key changes in how search has impacted traffic to Shopping websites.

• In May 2007, search engines were responsible for 25 percent of visits going to Shopping websites, an increase of 0.7 percent since May 2006.
• Google is the most prominent source of traffic for Shopping websites, and is growing more rapidly as a source of shopping traffic than the search engine category as a whole. In May 2007, Google accounted for 15.6 percent of Shopping visits, an increase of 8.7 percent since May 2006.
• Single word search queries (including domain and URL searches) accounted for 23.7 percent of search terms sending traffic to Shopping websites in May 2007. This number increased by 20 percent since May 2005, indicating that search toolbars are being used more frequently as a primary means of navigation.

Source: Hitwise

• 93% of all internet traffic is generated from internet search engines
  89% of them are first-time visitors
• 99% of internet searchers do not search beyond the top 30 results
  97% of them never look beyond the top three results
• Top 10 positions receive 78% more traffic than those in positions 11-30
• 65% of online revenue is generated from websites in the top three positions on search engine results pages (SERPs)
• 93% of global consumers use search engines to find websites
• 76.7% of Google users use the natural search links (organic, unpaid listings)

Source: Forrester Research, 2006

ARTICLE ARCHIVE

Internet Search users ‘stop at page three’

Most people using a search engine expect to find what they are looking for on the first page of results, says a US study.

At most, people will go through three pages of results before giving up, found a survey by Jupiter Research and marketing firm iProspect.

It also found that a third of users linked companies in the first page of results with top brands. The study surveyed 2,369 people from a US online consumer panel. It also found 62% of those surveyed clicked on a result on the first page, up from 48% in 2002. Some 90% of consumers clicked on a link in these pages, up from 81% in 2002. And 41% of consumers changed engines or their search term if they did not find what they were searching for on the first page.

…. Read More

New Study Shows Search Engines are First Step in Comparison Shopping
A new study reports that search engines are the first step in comparison shopping research for most consumers.

Conducted by Harris Interactive and launched by icrossing, the  “How America Searches: Online Shopping” study revealed that adult  shoppers who research products online before making a purchase  decision rely on search engines more than other tools.

Pulling from a nationwide sample of 2,322 US adults, the study said 88 percent conduct some sort of online research at least sometimes prior to making a purchase. For 67 percent of these researchers, search engines are the tool of choice, with 40 percent heading to a Google or a Yahoo! first to find the product or website they’re looking for.

2010 Data for Top U.S. Search Providers

March, 2010

Google continues to dominate the top position in the global search engine market, according to the latest 2010 statistics from Nielsen Company. Searches represent the total number of queries conducted at the provider. Example: An estimated 6.0 billion search queries were conducted at Google Search, representing 65.2 percent of all search queries conducted during the given time period.

Top 10 Search Providers for February 2010, Ranked by Searches (U.S.)
Rank	Provider	Searches (000)	Share of Searches
	All Search	9,175,357	100.0%
1	Google Search	5,981,044	65.2%
2	Yahoo! Search	1,294,261	14.1%
3	MSN/Windows Live/Bing Search	1,142,364	12.5%
4	AOL Search	206,969	2.3%
5	Ask.com Search	175,074	1.9%
6	My Web Search	91,288	1.0%
7	Comcast Search	55,122	0.6%
8	Yellow Pages Search	27,002	0.3%
9	NexTag Search	26,462	0.3%
10	WhitePages.com Network Search	24,681	0.3%
Source: The Nielsen Company

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Google Still Rules the Search Engine Market

December, 2009

Google is holding its leading position in the global search market, according to a new study from comScore.

Google leads the U.S. core search market with 65.7 percent of all searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! (17.3 percent), and Microsoft (Bing) (10.7 percent). Ask captured 3.7 percent of the search market, followed by AOL with 2.6 percent.

comScore Core Search Report* December 2009 vs. November 2009 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity	Share of Searches (%)
	Nov-09	Dec-09	Point Change Dec-09 vs. Nov-09
Total Core Search	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Google	65.6%	65.7%	0.1
Yahoo!	17.5%	17.3%	-0.2
Microsoft	10.3%	10.7%	0.4
Ask	3.8%	3.7%	-0.1
AOL	2.8%	2.6%	-0.2

* 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.

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Google receives 64 percent of all U.S. searches in Aug. 2007

“Google accounted for 63.98 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending September 1, 2007. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 22.87, 7.98 and 3.41 percent respectively.

Search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories. Comparing August 2007 to August 2006, the Travel, Entertainment and Business and Finance categories received double digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines.”

Percentage of US Searches Among Leading Search Engines
Domain	Aug-07	Jul-07	Aug-06
www.google.com	63.98%	64.35%	59.99%
search.yahoo.com	22.87%	22.13%	22.73%
search.msn.com	7.98%*	8.79%*	11.86%
www.ask.com	3.49%	3.21%	3.37%
Note: Data is based on sample of 10 million US Internet users.
Source: Hitwise

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Retail Websites Receive 25 Percent Of Their Traffic From Search Engines

Over past two years, significant changes have occurred in the way U.S. Internet users search. The following are some key changes in how search has impacted traffic to Shopping websites.

• In May 2007, search engines were responsible for 25 percent of visits going to Shopping websites, an increase of 0.7 percent since May 2006.
• Google is the most prominent source of traffic for Shopping websites, and is growing more rapidly as a source of shopping traffic than the search engine category as a whole. In May 2007, Google accounted for 15.6 percent of Shopping visits, an increase of 8.7 percent since May 2006.
• Single word search queries (including domain and URL searches) accounted for 23.7 percent of search terms sending traffic to Shopping websites in May 2007. This number increased by 20 percent since May 2005, indicating that search toolbars are being used more frequently as a primary means of navigation.

Source: Hitwise

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• 93% of all internet traffic is generated from internet search engines
  89% of them are first-time visitors
• 99% of internet searchers do not search beyond the top 30 results
  97% of them never look beyond the top three results
• Top 10 positions receive 78% more traffic than those in positions 11-30
• 65% of online revenue is generated from websites in the top three positions on search engine results pages (SERPs)
• 93% of global consumers use search engines to find websites
• 76.7% of Google users use the natural search links (organic, unpaid listings)

Source: Forrester Research, 2006

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February 28th, 2007

Latest Figures from Major Search Engine Traffic Analysis

These search engine statistics were presented by representatives from Hitwise, Neilsen/NetRatings and others at the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in London.

Global search engine use:

• 256 million people visited a search engine in December 2006 – this represents 81% of global internet users.
• The global search audience has grown by 10% over the last year, while the total Internet audience grew 8%.
• Search engine use grew dramatically in France (27%) and Spain (21%), ahead of the US (8%), though the US remains the largest search market
• Search is most popular in the UK (85%), France (83%) and Spain (83%). For the US, the figure is 77%.
• The average search engine user views 93 search pages a month, taking an average of 27 minutes.

Google’s global dominance:

• Google’s audience has grown almost 2.5 times the rate of search’s. It now has almost 3 times the audience of Yahoo Search.
• Google had a 71.6% share of the global search market between August 2006 and January 2007.
• In the same period, Yahoo had an 11.1% share of the market.
• From January 20 to February 12 this year, Google’s share dropped to 67.1%

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ARTICLE ARCHIVE

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Internet Search users ‘stop at page three’
Companies are advised to be found on the first page of search results

Most people using a search engine expect to find what they are looking for on the first page of results, says a US study.

At most, people will go through three pages of results before giving up, found a survey by Jupiter Research and marketing firm iProspect.

It also found that a third of users linked companies in the first page of results with top brands. The study surveyed 2,369 people from a US online consumer panel. It also found 62% of those surveyed clicked on a result on the first page, up from 48% in 2002. Some 90% of consumers clicked on a link in these pages, up from 81% in 2002. And 41% of consumers changed engines or their search term if they did not find what they were searching for on the first page.

…. Read More

New Study Shows Search Engines are First Step in Comparison Shopping
A new study reports that search engines are the first step in comparison shopping research for most consumers.

Conducted by Harris Interactive and launched by icrossing, the  “How America Searches: Online Shopping” study revealed that adult  shoppers who research products online before making a purchase  decision rely on search engines more than other tools.

Pulling from a nationwide sample of 2,322 US adults, the study said 88 percent conduct some sort of online research at least sometimes prior to making a purchase. For 67 percent of these researchers, search engines are the tool of choice, with 40 percent heading to a Google or a Yahoo! first to find the product or website they’re looking for.