Google Pockets 63 Percent Market in August

Posted by Vaibhav

September 23, 2008

Google continued its juggernaut in the search engine market and thrashed competitors Yahoo and Microsoft miserably in August, as per the latest figures released by comScore Inc. The search leader captured massive 63 percent of searches by US-based consumers previous month, up from 61.9 percent in July and 56.5 percent in August 2007.

Yet again, rivals Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. who hold the second and third spot respectively in the search market showed a dismal performance, unable to destabilize Google.

Yahoo saw a dip in its market share to 19.6 percent from 20.5 percent in July and 23.3 percent in the previous year. On the other hand, Microsoft managed mere 8.3 percent search market share, down from 8.9 percent in July and 11.3 percent in the last year.

This means out of the top three search brands, only Google managed to record an upward trend in the market, while the other two fell hard on their face due to the daunting threat of the search giant.

However, it is to be noted that searches for mapping, user-generated video sites and local directory are not included in the comScore’s report. The report, however, stated that 11.7 billion core searches were undertaken by the Americans, virtually unaffected from July, as Google carried on gaining search market share of 1.1 percent over the month.

Not surprisingly, Ask.com remained at the fourth place with an increase of just 0.3 percent, while AOL climbed 0.1 percent to 4.3 percent as per the data provided by the market research firm for the month of August.

The competition for search market has always been controlled by Google since a long period of time, though Yahoo and Microsoft have made several attempts to thump the giant. The plan has backfired for each of the two players most of the time in spite of their constant attempts to energize their brand presence. Some also feel that Yahoo decided its own fate by declining the proposal, as executives started defecting in huge numbers.

However, the fact is converse. In an effort to end Google’s dominance, Microsoft made several failed attempts to acquire Yahoo. If there was a merger between the two, there could have been great chances of giving Google a run for its money.

Seeing an ever increasing share of Google in the search market and its prominent position in the related market for Web search advertising, rivals and few industry trade groups have been compelled to complain to competition regulators in US and Europe. But rather, what is important is that these companies focus on quality and innovation instead of complaining against the competition.

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