• Search Engine Land , Tuesday, April 15, 2008 12:45 PM

The latest search market share report from Hitwise shows that with just over 67% of market share, Google has hit an all-time high. In contrast, with slightly more than 20% and almost 7%, Yahoo and MSN, respectively, have it their all-time lows. Guess the Microhoo thing should be a done deal, right?

Not according to Danny Sullivan. He argues that the industry shouldn't draw sweeping conclusions from one month's market share report--and one report from one data provider at that. "Lots of things can cause one month's figures to be incomparable to another month," Sullivan says. "It's better to see the trend across multiple months in a row."

And since each ratings service (whether it's a giant like Nielsen, mid-sized like Hitwise or even a niche player like Compete) uses a unique methodology to come up with market share, their results will likely vary. "However, a trend that you see reflected across two or more services may give you faith in trusting that trend," Sullivan says.

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