Nielsen on Search

[Brett_Tabke]

[nielsen-netratings.com...]

The latest research from Nielsen//NetRatings, the Internet research specialist, shows that when it comes to advertising on search engines, companies need to rely on more information than purely the size of a search engine’s audience when choosing where to spend their budgets for keyword placements.

[atadams]

Note: this is for searches in the UK. Does anyone know if they have a similar report for the US.

[atadams]

Here is another document that discusses the use of multiple search engines.

[nielsen-netratings.com...]

According to the latest custom research from Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Search, 58 percent of Google searchers also visited at least one of the other top two search engines, MSN Search and Yahoo! Search, showing that even though Google’s market share is dominant today, there is significant opportunity for its competitors to grow their share. The use of multiple search engines is not limited to Google’s searchers. Nearly 71 percent of those who searched at Yahoo! also visited at least one of the other top two search engines, and 70 percent of those who searched at MSN also tried their
luck at one or both of the other two.

It also has some statistics on search engine popularity.

Industry’s Latest Search Rankings for January 2005

Nielsen//NetRatings also reported today the latest rankings of online search engines based on the number of search query volume. A search is defined as a query conducted at a search engine and excludes internal site searches (e.g. searching for a stock symbol). Google Search led with 47 percent of all online searches, followed by Yahoo! Search and MSN Search with 21 percent and 13 percent, respectively. More than 80 percent of all searches were conducted at one of the top three search engines. The rankings were based on searches conducted at more than 60 search sites during January 2005.

[dauction]

You know he couldhave titled that "Companies recieve higher ctr onlarger search engines"

that would beter reflect their data ;it appears they want to read something other then what the data is actually showing.

That said ..naturally Companies should diversify their adverting dollars

[manticor24]

While I agree that marketing spend should be diversified, this data isn't what convinced me. To me it looks more like Nielson is looking for a way to make an important statement, and keep itself in the news to generate sales.

Hey Nielson: A 100% click-through rate is still worthless if you only have access to 0.05% of the market. In terms of generating sales volume, bigger is ALWAYS better.

[oddsod]

Ahem, what I'm surprised at is what passes for a "search engine" nowadays.

[Tom_Dalton]

Speaking of which, how do metasearch engines even get permission to operate? Aren't they technically in violation of the ToS of the engines they steal from?

[BillyS]

Speaking of which, how do metasearch engines even get permission to operate? Aren't they technically in violation of the ToS of the engines they steal from?

Silly me, I would think they have an operating agreement with those same search engines...

[Tom_Dalton]

Sure -- I might assume the same thing. I've never heard one way or the other, though, so I was wondering if anybody knew. It would be especially interesting to see what such an agreement might cost.