The Major Players
Google, Yahoo and MSN Market Share
October 2006 |
comScore |
NetRatings |
Hitwise |
Average |
Google |
45.4% |
49.6% |
60.9% |
52.0% |
Yahoo |
28.2% |
23.9% |
22.3% |
24.8% |
MSN |
11.7% |
8.8% |
10.6% |
10.4% |
Danny Sullivan recently posted the latest search engine market share stats in the SearchEngineWatch Blog . The order of the big three, has without much surprise, remained the same with Google the clear leader followed by Yahoo, then MSN.
Google
Since this time last year Google has seen a noticeable increase in their overall market share as they continue to grow in popularity. Its a slow and steady climb with no apparent end in sight. With the launch of new tools and features and the recent acquisition of YouTube, its ever increasing online presence is likely a leading contributor to this consistent rise in market share.
Yahoo
Yahoo remains in the middle. Having had some dips over the past 12 months they have risen slightly according to NetRatings and dropped slightly with comScore; however, overall, they have remained fairly static. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it does show stability over the long term and retention of return users. It will be interesting to see if by this time in 2007 they remain flat or if an increase in market share will be seen.
MSN
Since this time last year Microsoft has seen dips across the board and is now at its lowest point in the last 12 months. Currently hovering around the 10% mark it falls in third place and while 10% may sound low when considering the vastly increasing number of people performing searches, that figure still represents a significant piece of the pie. Certainly MSN would like to be higher, and with the launch of the new Windows Live, probably expected an increased share, but many people are afraid of change, and they just may have scared off some of their loyal users. That said, I would personally expect Windows Live, as it is further refined, to help MSN over the next 12 months.
What does all this mean for website owners? What it really comes down to is, yes you will get the most traffic by ranking #1 in Google, but you should not discount Yahoo and MSN, as they can still deliver a substantial number of visitors to your site. General optimization and responsible link building campaigns will help out with all three engines. Stay away from anything that looks fishy, continue to build quality content and incoming links, and keep your pages well optimized and you will stand the best chance of success. |
|
Yahoo Search Marketing Bidding Changes
This change has been forthcoming for some time now. The new Yahoo Search Marketing platform is available for some who have been chosen for early release, and for the rest, the new year will see the complete rollover into the new system. At the beginning of December, however, we will see the launch of the new bidding system at YSM and some recent changes to how you will manage your bidding. So what exactly is changing?
Top 5 Max Bids and Your Position
The current bids for the top 5 paid placements will be removed along with the your position column.
View Bids Tool
No longer will you be able to view the exact bid for specific key phrases as the view bids tool is being removed.
Estimated Average Position
You will no longer be able to view your exact position, however you will see your estimated average position. This figure is based on both your bid, and the bids of other advertisers.
Bid Range for Top Positions
Rather than seeing the exact bids, you will see a range of bids that advertisers are willing to pay for their ads.
Why are these things changing? The new bidding system with the new YSM platform is no longer that of a simple bid for position concept. The new form of bidding is now much more Google-like with click through rates, on site content, and bids all contributing to your ad rank. With this new system items such as the view bids tool, and top 5 max bids will be somewhat irrelevant to advertisers.
As some advertisers have already been rolled over into the new system, this bidding change reflected in the old system is to accommodate advertisers with more accurate bidding information. The following explanation has been provided by Yahoo to its advertisers:
| Why are you making this change to the bid information on the Manage Bids page?
"We are making this change in order to provide advertisers who have not yet upgraded to the new Sponsored Search with accurate bidding information.
As you may know, we've begun inviting U.S. advertisers to upgrade their accounts to the new Sponsored Search and invitations will continue to be sent in stages to U.S. advertisers over the remainder of the year and early next year. Given the way bid information is currently displayed, as advertisers upgrade to the new Sponsored Search, their bids would no longer be visible in the current system. By making this change, we are able to provide all advertisers with consistent and accurate bidding information, regardless of whether they have upgraded their accounts yet or not." |
No More Answers
After 4 years of Q and A Google Answers is being retired and as of late this week they will no longer be accepting new questions.
Google Answers was first introduced back in 2002 by a small 4 person team based on a rough idea by Larry Page. Within 4 months of inception the product was launched in beta and answered some of the most important questions of all time such as why there is no channel 1 and how flies can survive in the microwave .
While new questions will no longer be accepted after this week, Google Answers will continue to accept answers to existing questions until the end of the year. The Questions and Answers will also remain online for the foreseeable future.
Google Answers is a paid service to help searchers find answers to questions. While Google and the other search engines can provide information on just about anything, even for experienced users it can sometimes be difficult to find just the right piece of information. Google Answers allows you to post a question, and for a fee, have an expert researcher provide you with just the right answer.
by Scott Van Achte - Senior SEO
|
Highlight of the Week
