About Hitwise
Hitwise is the leader in online competitive intelligence. Contact Hitwise to maximize your online marketing programs.
Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - UK
Analyst Weblog
« The most searched for hotels brands also have the most visited websites -- but this need not be so | Bird Flu Fears Rising »
94% of UK internet searches are powered by 14% of search engines
October 06, 2005
Google UK and Google.com together power 7 in 10 UK internet searches and so have a clear hold on the bulk of searches in the UK. When you add in the next three biggest players, Ask, Yahoo! Search and MSN Search, the hold on the market climbs to 94% (four weeks ending 1 October 2005) - among just 4 search engines.
This equates to 94% of searches powered by 14% of search engines and represents incredible market dominance different from other areas on the web. For example, the top four retail sites accounted for 48% of visits and the top four travel sites account for 11% of visits within those categories in the month of September.
Year on year, Google UK and MSN.co.uk Search have posted tremendous growth in the volume of searches powered. Google UK has seen a 77% growth year on year in its share of searches powered (comparing the four week periods ending 1 October 2005 and 2 October 2004). Google's growth is likely fuelled by the Google toolbar.
MSN.co.uk Search has seen an 892% increase in the volume of searches powered in that same time period. While MSN.co.uk Search has growth exponentially, the .com property's share of searches has remained steady. This is likely due to the migration of UK internet users to the .co.uk search page as the default browser and adoption of the MSN search toolbar.
Top 10 Search Engines Based on Volume of Searches Powered, Four Weeks Ending 1 October 2005
For a copy of the Hitwise UK Search Insight Report, click here.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 05:30 PM
| 
(1)
| 
(0)
TrackBack
TrackBack URL:
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/32.
Hey Heather, I think MSN UK's recent search growth is largely due to the clever (or devious) way in which recent MSN Messenger updates have included switching the default search engine settings in Internet Explorer to MSN. There have been about three updates in the last twelve months, all of which seek to reset IE as default browser, MSN as the default home page and MSN Search as the default search engine.
Posted by Steve Johnston | October 6, 2005 09:59 AM