YouTube Supplants Google, Microsoft, Others In Video Search

Battles involving Microsoft and Google are often cast as David-versus-Goliath struggles, but in the video search space, these two giants are dwarfed by video-sharing site YouTube.com--which, according to data released Wednesday by Hitwise, has captured 43 percent of all visits to video search sites during the week ending May 20.

YouTube.com--in competition with sites like Google Video Search, at a 6.5 percent share over the same period, Yahoo Video Search, with 9.6 percent, and MSN Video Search with 9.2 percent--has seen its share of visits increase by 160 percent in the last three months, but is closely trailed by MySpace Videos. MySpace's video search site--which has the second-highest share in the space, at 24.2 percent during the week ending May 20--saw an increase in market share of 3,825 percent over the last three months.

Despite YouTube's dominance, video search as a whole is growing at a rapid rate, the report said--the overall share of total Internet activity for the top 10 video search sites has increased by 164 percent in the past three months. YouTube, which has a Web 2.0 cachet in the same vein as sites like Flickr and del.icio.us, launched its video search and sharing functions in December 2005, while competitor MySpace Video launched more recently, in January 2006. Google launched a beta of its video search offering in January 2005, while Yahoo launched its own site in May of that year.

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