MSN Lags Behind in War of Search While Google & Yahoo Outpace the Search Industry Growth

April 25, 2006

As per latest Internet traffic data available from Nielsen//NetRatings, there has been a solid growth of 36 percent in overall search growth while Google and Yahoo! grew 41 percent and 47 percent, respectively, outpacing the overall search growth.

Google's searches increased from 2.1 billion in March 2005 to 2.9 billion in March 2006, while in the same time period, Yahoo's searches increased from 907.8 million to 1.3 billion. However, the No. 3 search provider, MSN, witnessed just an increase in search from 592.2 million to 643.8 million, hence, registering a modest 9 percent growth.

Internet search market, one of the most profitable area of the net, is also one of the most keenly contested area, which at present is dominated by Google, while Yahoo! is trying to follow it closely. In March, Google and Yahoo! also gained search market share, increasing two percentage points and one percentage point year over year, respectively. Google now accounts for 49 percent of all searches, Yahoo! 22 percent. MSN's share dropped slightly, from 14 to 11 percent, which shows that MSN has a lot to do to put its act together though there is quite a buzz in the market over MSN portal www.live.com but Google continued to remain the favorite of audience.

Google, which has been an industry leader in Search Business and has revolutionized the webworld by giving a second leash of life to dotcoms by its innovative products Adwords & Adsense, reported revenues of $2.25 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2006, representing a 79 percent increase over first quarter 2005 revenues of $1.26 billion, and a 17 percent increase over fourth quarter 2005 revenues of $1.92 billion.

Concluded.

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