Google's Lead Over Yahoo! Narrows in Customer Satisfaction Survey

They are catching up

[cellularnews]

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 16, 2005--Online stalwarts Google and Yahoo! lead the category in the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) report on e-business websites released today. The e-business report includes measurements of search engines, portals and online news and information sites.

Customer satisfaction with e-business continued its climb, rising 4.7 percent since 2004 to 75.9 on the ACSI's 100-point scale. E-business narrowed the gap with the ACSI e-commerce measure (78.6) and exceeded the national ACSI average (73.1) for the first time ever.

Google (82), with its roots as a search engine, and Yahoo! (80), traditionally known as a portal, find themselves increasingly competing in the same space, as the categories of search and portals converge. Both companies are in the top-scoring tier of the ACSI, which measures customer satisfaction of over 200 companies across 41 industries.

"The lines between e-business companies are being drawn more in terms of content facilitators and content providers," said Larry Freed, online satisfaction expert and President and CEO of ForeSee Results. "Google, Yahoo! lead the way with MSN, AOL and Ask Jeeves trailing, but closing the gap."

Go to the foreseeresults website for the full press release and chart goodness.