Google has come out on top of yet another survey of the search-engine market, following the company's top rankings on recent surveys by HitWise and Nielsen//NetRatings. Analysis firm ComScore Networks' latest rankings report indicates that, in April, Google gained market share for the ninth consecutive month.

The Reston, Virginia-based firm said that Google maintained its top position by capturing 43.1 percent of all U.S. searches. Yahoo remained in second place with 28 percent, while MSN came in third place with 12.9 percent.

"These figures are very similar to recent survey data from HitWise and NetRatings," said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research. "They are also very similar to a U.S. survey Forrester Research carried out last fall which put Google in top place for Internet searches."

Market Numbers

The ComScore report indicates that Google's market share rose from 36.5 percent in April 2005 to 42.7 percent in March 2006, while Yahoo fell from 30.7 percent in April last year to 28 percent in March 2006.

MSN also declined, with its market share falling from 16.1 percent in April 2005 to 13.2 percent in March.

Moreover, the ComScore report revealed that new entrant MySpace.com captured 0.6 percent of the search market in April 2006, while Ask.com saw its market share fall from 6.1 in April 2005 to 5.9 percent in March 2006 and 5.8 percent in April.

Time Warner Network's search market share declined from 9 percent in April 2005 to 7.6 percent in March 2006 and 5.8 percent in April. America Online is owned by Time Warner.

Competitive Threat

While Google continues to dominate the world of search, experts say that the company cannot afford to be complacent in light of the fierce competition for Internet users.

"It won a lot of users over the last five years, but it could easily lose them," said Li. "Search is one of the least 'sticky' Internet applications, which is why Google has been so busy launching new features."

Li noted that both Yahoo and Google are developing advanced search services that are designed with better, more-personalized recommendations in mind.

"They are using different approaches," she said. "Google is adopting a technological approach using complex search algorithms based on past searches by a user, while Yahoo looks at its records of what other people with similar interests are searching for."

NetRatings and HitWise

According to NetRatings, Google was the top U.S. search engine in March 2006, with 2.9 billion searches, followed by Yahoo with 1.3 billion searches.

While HitWise's U.S. Internet user survey also shows Google in the top spot for searches, with a 47.4 percent share in the week ending May 13, it reveals that Google is not doing so well when it comes to e-mail or vertical portals.

In e-mail, Yahoo Mail was the top player in the week ending May 13 with 42.4 percent, beating Microsoft's Hotmail service that had 22.9 percent. Google's Gmail service had a dismal 2.54 percent, according to HitWise.

The HitWise survey indicates that Yahoo also leads in vertical portals. According to HitWise, Yahoo News had a 6.3 percent share of the news-portal market in the week ending May 13, compared to Google News, which had just 1.49 percent.

Yahoo Finance had a 34.9 percent share of the finance-portal market, winning over MSN Money with 13.4 percent and Google Finance with just 0.29 percent.

Source: Sci-Tech-Today