Microsoft MSN Leads Gain In Search Market
Microsoft Corp.’s MSN showed a higher gain in U.S. search queries in July than its top rivals Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., but it’s too soon to say whether the third-place portal is catching up, a Web metrics firm said Friday.
The number of queries on MSN rose 30 percent over the same month last year to 744 million, ComScore Networks said. The total volume of online searches year-to-year increased 23 percent to more than 4.8 billion.
“It definitely shows some progress,” ComScore researcher James Lamberti said. “It’s remarkable that Microsoft has managed to hold its own and make slight gains during a year where there’s been a significant amount of focus on search (by all the portals).”
Nevertheless, rivals Google, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves also grew in number of searches in July at a pace higher than the overall market. Google and Yahoo showed a 27 percent year-to-year increase to 1.8 million and 1.5 million searches, respectively. Ask Jeeves saw a 26 percent increase to 293,000.
In terms of market share, however, MSN had less than half of search leader Google, which accounted for 36.5 percent of all online searches in the United States in July. Yahoo came in second with a 30.5 percent share.
What’s uncertain is whether MSN has made sustainable progress against its competitors, Lamberti said. The search engine’s growth could be attributed to having a smaller user base and the seasonality of search.
Having a smaller base means MSN can add fewer searches overall, but the percentage in terms of growth would be higher. In addition, the summer months are traditionally slow for search, because people are on vacation and students are off for the summer.
“The slower seasonal months tend to impact Google more than the other players, because they have such a large base of users,” Lamberti said.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., also embarked on a MSN marketing blitz in February and March that has helped it maintain its current market share and make slight gains over Google and Yahoo, Lamberti said.
The test, however, will be in the peak months of September through October, and January through April, Lamberti said. MSN would have to continue to show real gains during those months to show its taking searchers away from competitors.
“The (overall) market is growing so much that it’s tough to see the impact from true performance,” Lamberti said. “It’ll be interesting to see if MSN can maintain its improved position as we enter the heavier search months.”
While Google was the top search-getter, Yahoo led the market in toolbar usage, ComScore said. The portal’s browser add-in served as the starting point for 51 percent of all toolbar searches in July, or 282 million searches. That number is 74 percent higher than a year ago.
Toolbar use is significant because the application provides a gateway to a portal, without the user actually having to go directly to the site.
Overall, 11 percent of U.S. online searches were conducted via toolbars, up from 8 percent a year ago.
“Yahoo has done an extremely good job of marketing its toolbar to its user base,” Lamberti said.
And that base is sizable. Some portion of the Sunnyvale, Calif., portal’s network is used by 70 percent of online consumers in the United States.
“They’ve really taken advantage of the portal lock in that they have,” Lamberti said. “That’s always going to be an advantage for them in the market, as long as they maintain that massive reach.”
Among the other leading search engines, America Online Inc., owned by Time Warner Inc., had a 9.9 percent market share; Ask Jeeves, recently bought by IAC/InterActiveCorp, had a 6.1 percent share; InfoSpace Network, 0.9 percent; and all others 0.6 percent.
As a whole, the six largest search engines accounted for 99.4 percent of all online searches in July, up from 98.5 percent a year ago.
