Google Holds Search Query Lead

Posted on July 28, 2005

InformationWeek reports that AOL's search queries rose 16% in the second quarter of 2005 and Ask Jeeve's queries rose by 15%. These numbers were much greater than the increases at the big search engines like Google and Yahoo which saw increases of less than 10%. MSN actually saw its queries drop 4% during the quarter.

A rise in the use of image search drove the query increases on Google, Yahoo and AOL, the research firm said. News search was the main driver behind Ask Jeeves's increase. Even though MSN saw a drop in queries, the number of image searches quarter to quarter rose 90 percent.

For the month of June, Google captured 47 percent of all search queries to hold on to its No. 1 position in the market, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Yahoo was a distant second with 22 percent, followed by MSN, 12 percent; AOL, 5 percent; and My Way Search, 2 percent.

That fact that My Way, a search aggregator that displays results from Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves and LookSmart, came in ahead of Ask Jeeves in June was interesting, but no conclusions could be drawn, Cassar said.

"This could be just a hiccup," he said.

Nielsen/NetRatings % Of All Search Queries for June, 2005

1. Google: 47%
2. Yahoo: 22%
3. MSN: 12%
4. AOL: 5%
5. My Way: 2%



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