Bing make up some ground in the US, whilst Google achieve near domination of UK search volume, reaching 90%in the latest search engine market share statistics.
The new YaBing partnership appears to be bearing some fruit over in the US. Last month the two engines combined to control a sizeable 26.6% of the entire search market, taking a 2.1% chunk out of Google’s lead. Bing was the biggest gainer, leaping from 9.9% up to 12.5%. Yahoo slipped 0.3% down to 14.1%. However, according to Nielsen’s latest statistics, Google is the biggest loser; slumping to a mere 65.2% of the search market from 67.3% in December [see: Search Engine Market Share Statistics – February 2010].
On this side of the pond, things have been a little more settled. Google have reinforced their market dominance by reaching 90% of the total UK searches. This represents a gain of just 0.32% since last month. Bing has suffered a slight slip, going from 3.07% down to 2.98%. Certainly nothing to be too concerned about though.
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Thanks to a year on year visitor increase of 185%, Facebook has overtaken Google.com as the most visited website in the US.
According to the latest Hitwise statistics, Google has been knocked off the top spot by Facebook; making the social media giant the most visited site in America. Whilst the difference between the two may be negligible (Google commands 7.03% of the total visitor share, Facebook 7.07%), the significance of this shift in power could be far reaching.
But before we get too carried away, there are a number of factors that can’t be ignored.
Firstly, these statistics are just from the US market. They don’t take into account any other Internet users, so aren’t representative of the wider world.
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The much feted Google Caffeine update is a little behind schedule, with extensive testing still ongoing. Currently live on just one datacentre, a global release is still a little way off. But could Europe be next to get it?
Whilst discussing the latest news and issues surrounding Google with WebProNews, Matt Cutts suggested (although was at pains to affirm that it wasn’t official) that the next ‘data centre to be hit’ might be Europe. This could well mean that we could finally see what all the fuss is about on these shores.
Caffeine represents a new and improved Google. It relies on exceptionally quick data centres providing results almost instantaneously. But it isn’t just about faster results. Indexing and crawling are also getting turbo-charged. There’s no visible change for those visiting Google, just a more comprehensive list of results in double-quick time.
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PubSubHubbub, otherwise referred to simply as PuSH, is the real-time search engine publishing tool developed by Google. Announced a little over half-a-year ago, PubSubHubbub could finally about to revolutionise content distribution.
When PubSubHubbub was announced [see: What is PubSubHubbub?], it was seen as a new, real-time way to distribute content. Whilst Google Buzz, Wave and the Caffeine update may have taken the spotlight in the interim, it appears that PubSubHubbub (PuSH) is ready to come out of the darkness.
The principle is simple. Content distributors automatically fire their latest blog post, news story or update to a hub. This hub then redistributes to subscribers in real-time. The whole process is automated and is complete in seconds. It is a great win-win situation. Content gets wider distribution to targeted traffic streams. Readers get instant updates, reducing search time. What could be easier?
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Following yesterday’s guilty verdict for three Google executives accused of breaching privacy laws in the Italian courts, will sites now have to be more accountable for the content that they host?
This could well prove to be a landmark ruling in the history of the Internet. The air of invincibility surrounding content hosts has been well and truly shattered. With high ranking executives being handed suspended jail sentences, any lethargy towards removing illegal or damaging content on sites has been forcibly quashed with one drop of a judge’s gavel.
But who exactly is accountable for content? Should the executives bear the brunt for something they’ve (most likely) never had any prior knowledge of? Should there be more blocks in place to ensure that any content that is deemed offensive or goes against the terms of use never sees the light of day, or at the very least, is removed quickly?
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The tit-for-tat battle between Google and Microsoft could be heading to the European courts after it was announced that the former is now the subject of an antitrust investigation. This news comes as three executives are found guilty of invading privacy in Italy.
An initial complaint from consumer review site Ciao in Germany has now spilled over to Brussels and the halls of the European Commission. The antitrust probe has been launched following complaints from Foundem, ejustice.fr and the aforementioned Ciao.
As with most antitrust suits, it relates to Google supposedly using, or perhaps abusing their market dominance in the fields of search and search advertising. However, this is far from coincidental. Microsoft now own Ciao, even renaming it ‘Ciao from Bing’, and have a fair stake in the ICOMP (Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace) member, Foundem. This certainly looks like a shot across the bows from Microsoft, an attempt to derail the juggernaut-like progress of Google.
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Muddled, linear, maddening…heaven? What would the Internet really be without SEO and can we live without it?
You don’t need me to remind you how unpopular SEO is in some circles. Whilst some see it as a great equaliser and an enabler of smaller websites, others see it as a giant leach, slowly sucking the life out of the Internet as we know it. But is the Internet actually for having SEO?
After all, SEO has helped to form the indexes that the search engines now hold. The dark arts once practised by some have also helped to strengthen algorithms and paved the way for the latest developments.
Everything that achieves great success has to have a nemesis. In politics, fiction (although these two aren’t always mutually exclusive) and business everybody has to have a competitor to drive it forward; but some also need a third element.
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People aren’t just accessing your site from their desktop PCs any more. They aren’t even just searching on Google or Bing. The mobile Internet is exploding and is bringing with it whole new ways of accessing and interacting with the web.
In the early days of WAP phones, the mobile Internet was little more than a novelty. Accessible sites were few and far between, bandwidth was lower than dial up and networks charged extortionate rates for using it. Today, all this has changed.
Mobile phones are more popular, more technically advanced and more connective than they have ever been. The development of smartphones – think the iPhone, Nokia N95, Google Nexus One – have kicked off an evolutionary leap in how we interact mobiles and the specification that they can now offer. Now they have greater memory, larger, higher resolution touch screens and internet connectivity.
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The shift from static to mobile Internet gathers momentum as Eric Schmidt that Google are a ‘mobile first’ company.
No longer satisfied with conquering the static Internet, Google have now announced their intention to do the same with the mobile form. During a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress, Google’s Chief Executive, Eric Schmidt, announced that their programmers would be “doing work on mobile first”. With the technology, expertise and brand power at their disposal, now is the time to really start taking mobile search advertising seriously.
It’s not only Google moving over to the mobile internet, it is the consumers themselves – in their millions. New devices are flooding the market and providers are increasingly integrating online minutes within their tariffs and contracts. The lines of accessibility, affordability and interest are drawing steadily closer. Mobile search advertising is also a growing market and one that could become hugely lucrative to those who master it first.
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Google offer far more than just a search engine. They have become a driving force in online innovation, developing some exceptional tools and programmes along the way. Here, we take a look at some of the most significant of these.
Google AdWords
This is Google’s Pay per Click platform. It provides site owners the opportunity to advertise their site within specific search terms on Google’s SERPs. Within AdWords you will also find the Keyword Tool, which will highlight potential phrases and the competition levels you face. Perfect for websites looking to get additional exposure.
Google Alerts
Get the latest updates in any field delivered straight to your inbox. Alerts scrapes Google News for stories that contain your requested keywords and phrases, then sends the information and links to your email account.
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Google are to launch a new social media tool that will be bolted on to their Gmail service. But has Buzz got enough to compete with Facebook and Twitter?
With the social media bandwagon continuing to gather momentum, Google have now thrown their hat in the ring. Not satisfied with integrating Twitter updates in their SERPs or introducing Social Search [see: Google's Social Search Adds Further Personalisation to SERPs], they are now getting in on the action with a new platform of their own – Google Buzz.
But with Twitter and Facebook seemingly cornering the market, is there really enough room for Buzz to get take a slice? Conventional logic would suggest not, but this is Google.
It would take a brave man to suggest that a Google product will fall flat on its face, and I’m certainly not going to buck that trend. But Buzz does have an uphill challenge. Facebook is the king of social media. With 350 million users and the second largest traffic stream (behind Google.com) of an individual domain, there is undoubtedly healthy competition out there.
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Some call Google a monopoly, others one of the most innovative companies in the online technologies sector pushing forward the progress of the Internet. The one thing that can’t be argued though is that it is the most popular website in the world, and with it, the most used search engine. So is their dominance having a negative effect on the Internet?
Google as a company and an entity has grown so rapidly in such a (relatively) short period of time. Today, as it has been for some years in truth, the company name is the byword for online search. We don’t simply look for information, products and services any more, we ‘Google them’.
Their encroachment into the day-to-day language has helped the brand grow and the search engine develop. With an 80% share of the lucrative search market, as well as developing their own operating system, Internet browser and mobile phone amongst many other things, Google have gradually expanded their influence and gone far beyond the parameters of their original business. So the big question is, has this growth had a positive or negative effect on the Internet?
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As Social Media continues to expand and lure in vast volumes of Internet traffic, where does its fustier, slower (methodical if you will) and more derided website marketing compadre, SEO, now fit in?
Search Engine Optimisation has been saddled with a reputation for being something of a shadowy practice; online alchemy, created to appease the search engine gods. The thing is though, it works. Better still, it continues to work to this day.
Social Media has emerged from the Friends Reunited Petri dish and exploded into a full-grown living organism, consuming everything in its path; or, at least, nearly everything. Facebook has experienced the most meteoric of rises, propelled by the slipstream of fading stars like MySpace, it has slipped seamlessly into the top 3 sites in the world (2nd by some metrics, 3rd in others) and gained itself over 350 million users.
Thanks to Facebook, along with Twitter, YouTube and a whole multitude of bookmarking cohorts, Social Media has got the world communicating in real-time. This free network of conversations has engulfed the Internet and opened the door of opportunity to marketers. Inevitably, when something huge comes to dominate an entity as the Internet, something has to make way; but is that thing SEO?
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Google have been developing their Social Search profile for a few months now. Last week we finally saw the emergence of their latest endeavours, a new element within their blended results featuring related messages from your online social circle.
Social Search is now going to appear as an option within Google’s search results. Essentially it works by pooling the public information shared by your online friends and will show those that include the keywords used – in order of relevance of course.
So how does Google know who I’m friends with?
Well, the Social Search element will only appear for those who have a Google profile and are signed in. It collates the data from the links that you voluntarily supply. For example, your Google profile might include Facebook, Twitter and Gmail, with links to each of your related accounts. Google can then reach in and grab your public information – i.e. your friends or contacts list – and include them within your social circle – ready for Social Search integration.
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Latest figures show that Google has continued its search engine market dominance, Bing has made small gains and Yahoo are spiralling into search oblivion.
Once again we take a look at the search activity of users both sides of the pond to gauge how the search engine market is developing. Since our last report in November [see: Search Engine Market Share Statistics - November 2009], Google have continued to strengthen their vice-like grip on the industry whilst Bing have been picking up some of Yahoo’s deserters.
Google now control over two thirds of the U.S. market, extending their share from 65.4% in October up to 67.3% two months later (statistics courtesy of Nielsen). Here, the search giant is now just shy of a 90% share, being the engine of choice for 89.68% of all searches, which is in itself a 0.94% leap (figures from Hitwise). But for all these gains there have to be losses, and unfortunately for Yahoo! they have been the hardest hit.
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