There are thousands (literally) of alternative search engines, but their combined market share is less than 2% of the overall market. In contrast, Google alone commands a market share of about 70%. And according to Nitin Karandikar, the search giant is so -- well, giant, that challengers like Powerset don't stand a chance at snagging significant market share. This large majority of Internet users that are Googling are all "slowly and inexorably getting trained in the 'Google way" of searching: keyword-ese, a highly minimalist user interface, the SERPs results page, and so on," Karandikar says. "Whether or not …

While Yahoo made solid gains in terms of search spend and Q1 '08 started out strong overall, the latest report from SearchIgnite points to slower growth for search spending--a possible sign that the recession has begun to take its toll. "Broadly speaking, we saw a pretty strong first quarter," said Roger Barnette, president of SearchIgnite. Year-over-year, search marketing spend increased by almost 29% across all the engines, with Yahoo pulling out an exceptional almost 58% increase. But, as DM News writer Ellen Keohane points out, overall, there were growth rate declines as the quarter progressed. "I …

Though Google is more like David to Baidu's Goliath in China, the search giant's top brass, including CEO Eric Schmidt and Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, have been quite public about the company's goals for snagging more of China's search market share. This week, for example, Lee reaffirmed the search giant's naked ambition at the Boao Forum for Asia. "Certainly, we would like to aspire to be a market leader in five years," Lee said. And a look into the latest stats (from Beijing research firm Analysys International) shows that Google's share of search revenue in …

ICrossing has acquired German search and affiliate marketing firm 3GNet, further expanding its European presence. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based interactive shop purchased London-based Spannerworks in early 2007, but according to CEO Jeff Herzog, this latest acquisition was necessary because "the U.K. by no means is a foothold into Europe." In 3GNet, iCrossing gets an SEO-focused stronghold in mainland Europe, some 70 new employees, and offices in Munich and Berlin. The firm's clients include eBay, Espirit and Epson (which is an iCrossing client in the U.S.).

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 …

Noah Belson, a content quality analyst at Yahoo, serves up a list of tips for making your Mother's Day PPC ads as appealing as possible. Decide how narrow or broad you want the scope of your offering to be--keeping in mind the need to strike a balance between targeting shoppers in your niche, and still snagging searchers who aren't quite sure what gift they want. "People searching on keywords like 'mothers day gifts' usually want a variety of offerings, rather than one specific item," Belson says. Include promotional language like "free gift wrapping" and "same day …

Jill Whalen responds to a reader question about why searchers in different states or regions may ultimately end up seeing different results. When it comes to different results for the same exact query, automatic geo-targeting may be the culprit. "If you're searching for something that seems to be a local search to [the engines], say a plumber, they will often try to show you plumbers in your particular geographical area," Whalen says. "Even if you don't specify that you're looking for a plumber in Indiana." On the other hand, if it's about why snagging a top …