Get out - people really use Ask.com to search the Internet?  I don't think I have ever seen this on someone's monitor or heard anyone I know ever mention them.

http://microsoft.blognewschannel.com/archives/2008/01/31/could-live-search-actually-take-second-place/

live-search-market-share-december-2007.jpg

LiveSide has done a complete chart showing the search engine market share ratings from Nielsen, Hitwise and Compete over the last 13 months, and the trends are confusing, but may be moving in Microsoft’s favor. While Hitwise shows Microsoft’s Live Search down over 20% in 2007, and Compete shows it barely up (from 8.8% to 9.1%, after a brief flirtation with 10%), Nielsen/Netratings has Live Search on a tear, going from 8.4% in December 2006 to 10.1% in March, 13.3% in June, and 13.8% in December.

Meanwhile, no one is disputing the failure of Yahoo. Hitwise again shows little change (which makes me question their accuracy), with Yahoo falling from 21.6% to 20.88%, but Nielsen and Compete have nearly identical numbers, with Yahoo starting at 23.6% and 23.2%, respectively, and plummeting to 17.7% and 17%.

If you only go with Nielsen’s numbers, Yahoo and Microsoft are seperated by just 3.2%, and that’s after a year where Yahoo fell 5.9% and Microsoft gained 5.4%. Things are a little less spectacular (for Microsoft) at Compete, where Yahoo still fell 6.2%, but Microsoft gained a meager 0.3%.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E


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© Anthony Clendenen

2 Comment(s) 06:35 - Feb 01, 2008



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rodtrent :

I've used Ask.com and really like it.  However, I don't use it unless I think "hey, I haven't used Ask.com in a while, let me try it again".  I bet a lot of folks are like that.  Once they get used to using something that works, it's hard to change habits.

But...

I loved Yahoo at one point.  Used it all the time.  Then, started using Google just because it had a simpler interface.  All I wanted to do was Search.  Why be confronted with a huge interface like Yahoo's when I just needed to search.  Too many distractions.

Which is why I'm glad Live.com moved to a simpler interface like Google's.  I've been using Live.com religiously for over a year and am happy each time they improve it.  Google remains as popular as it is, in my opinion, because of the huge influx of industry news when they release some crazy new web app.  If the industry gave as much attention to Live.com when they release new web apps, Google's market share would drop.

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aclendenen :

"just because it had a simpler interface"

Yes that was Yahoo's downfall.  Everyone hated that interface, even today it is still too cluttered for my own taste.

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