• by February 28, 2005

Nielsen//NetRatings reported market share data for the three biggest Internet search engines today. According to the company's MegaView Search Service, Google has 47 percent of all online searches, Yahoo! has 21 percent, and MSN is responsible for 13 percent of searches.

MegaView Search also reports that 58 percent of Google searchers visited at least one of the other top two search engines, MSN Search and Yahoo! Search. This would suggest that while Google is still the 800-pound gorilla, there is a window of opportunity for MSN, Yahoo!, and others to steal share. Obviously that's what MSN is hoping to accomplish via a global advertising campaign that is literally everywhere these days.

Last night, we saw ads for MSN Search during ABC's broadcast of the 77th Annual Academy Awards. MSN Search is also touted in places you just can't miss - like on the cardboard holders placed around coffee cups to prevent java drinkers from burning their hands. In New York City at least, at the News Café just down the block from the Minute's office, steaming cups of coffee have been sporting MSN Search holders for the past two weeks.

MSN isn't the only one searching for users, Yahoo! also needs to close that 26 percent gap. Nearly 71 percent of those who searched at Yahoo! visited at least one of the other top two search engines, and 70 percent of those who searched at MSN also tried their luck at one or both of the other two.

Ken Cassar, director of strategic analysis for Nielsen//NetRatings, pointed out that each of the "Big Three" search engines should recognize that "they exclusively own a minority of their users." Cassar said in a statement, "This highlights an opportunity and a threat to all of the established players in the market, and underscores the importance of continued innovation in a highly competitive market that is anything but mature." Interestingly, Nielsen//NetRatings found that Google users showed a greater degree of loyalty. For example, while Google shared 58 percent of its visitors - 26 percent with Yahoo!, 19 percent with MSN, and 14 percent with both Yahoo! and MSN, its competitors' overlap of searchers was higher.

Yahoo! shared 71 percent of its traffic, 39 percent with Google, 11 percent with MSN, and 21 percent with both Google and MSN. MSN shared 70 percent of its traffic - 33 percent with Google, 13 percent with Yahoo!, and 24 percent with both Yahoo! and Google.