Nielsen: US Search Volume Down 16% While Bing Jumps

[drall]

uh wow! Yes google dropped another 1% MoM but the this next statement has earth shattering effects.

"The number of searches conducted in the U.S. over the last year has decreased by 16% from 10.5 billion in July 2009 to 8.8 billion in July 2010."

The number of searches conducted in the U.S. over the last year has decreased by 16% from 10.5 billion in July 2009 to 8.8 billion in July 2010. MSN/Windows Live/Bing was the only one of the top three engines to have experienced an increase in search volume – a 28% increase from 0.9 billion to 1.2 billion.

[blog.nielsen.com...]

[drall]

FB, twitter, direct to site, apps, economy, Bing gaining every month. I wonder if Eric has had a similar chair throwing event yet.

[kaz]

FB, twitter, direct to site, apps, economy, Bing gaining every month.

How about looking at stats beyond one month?

If this is a trend, then stats should be looked at beyond one month and correspond.

Does anyone have the stats available for YoY/MoM June, May, April, etc....

[graeme_p]

@ByronM, most people do not do not search the web from Facebook, and FB do not particularly push it, and I assume live.com has always used Bing. That leaves Iphone as the most significant change, and that seems nothing like significant enough to cause a drop this big (its still accounts for a fairly low percentage of time spent online).

Its much for likely that Nielsons' stats are misleading.

[tedster]

I find it hard to accept that Nielsen, whose core competence is statistics, wouldn't have noticed this startling drop and triple checked their methodology before reporting it publicly. I grant you, it definitely is startling.

[mrguy]

Of course people who are in love with Google will never believe anything negative when it comes to Google.

Even though the numbers are there staring them in the face, they still don't believe that Bing is gaining and Google is losing. Sure, it's only losing a little at a time but a loss is a loss no mater how little it is.

[graeme_p]

@mrguy, of course people who hate Google/love Microsoft will unquestioningly believe anything anything negative about Google.

@tedster, polling companies, with a very similar core competency to Nielson have often released misleading of plain wrong. I have, over the years, found far too many mistakes by people in their core competencies to take anything for granted. There are also lots of reasons why people publish stuff knowing it is incomplete or misleading (Harry Blodget was perfectly competent and doing what everyone else did).

The blog post explicitly says that some data is excluded. It is just a blog post, not a full report. If you were a paying customer you could ask them for more info. It is in their interest to generate PR with startling numbers to remind people that they are a source of this data.

[tedster]

Good point and well expressed, graeme_p.

Especially given all the technical innovations on the various search results pages over the past year that may or may not be counted, a deeper look at the data would probably be clarifying.

[graeme_p]

Thanks Tedster.

[mrguy]

I call it like it see it.

Google continues to do stupid things while Bing continues to look very professional. Example, the stupid floating logo showing up today.

Many people I know and work with use Bing now instead of Google. That is loss in my book because they used to use Google and now they don't.

It was bound to happen. Google has already hit their zenith as far as US users go and the only direction they can go is down.

I don't think they are doomed but I also don't think they are going to enjoy the dominance they have had in the US search market. It’s going to a more even playing field in the next few years since the public’s love of Google is wearing off each and every time they hear about their data collection and privacy issues.

It’s ok to be a Google lover ;)

[nomis5]

This thread is not about Bing v Google, it's about a drop in searches of 16%. The Google v Bing thing is almost irrelevant to us if there has been a 16% drop in the use of search engines. By the way, Ask has outperformed the lot of them this month.

If neilsen is to be believed and there has been a 16% drop year on year then as far I can see this is not news. Nothing particularly dramatic has occurred this month so why no news last month of a 15% drop. Why is it suddenly news this month - they are reporting year on year.

Sure, search is declining and if you are in a market where search engines can be replaced by YouTube, twitter etc then yes, the warning signs are there. But no immediate need to go into a blind panic. Migrate your business to a more search orientated subject.

[graeme_p]

This [blog.nielsen.com ] from a month ago shows only a 1% year on year drop in the percentage of online time (percentage of a percentage!) Americans spend on search.