Study: Google Searches Up 31%

Search giant Google is still leading the search pack, with nearly twice as many searches in November as closest competitor Yahoo. According to Nielsen//Netratings, users made 3.1 billion searches on Google alone in November.

by Kristina Knight

That is up 31% from November 2005, according to the Nielsen//Netratings report. Google is holding steady at 49.5% of all searches.

Meanwhile, Yahoo users conducted 1.52 billion searches in November, up 29% from last year. They hold about 24% of all searches. However, with the opening of paid platform Panama last week to all advertisers, Yahoo could begin to gain ground on Google in 2007. Industry insiders expect more marketers to try Panama after the holiday season has passed.

"In the past two months we have gotten nothing short of extraordinarily positive responses [to Panama]," said Steve Mitgang, senior vice president of Yahoo's advertising products and platforms unit (in a statement).

Close behind Yahoo but still losing ground was MSN’s Windows LiveSearch, pulling in only 515.5 million searches. That is a 12% drop from 2005, and a total search share of only 8.2%. Behind MSN was AOL Search with just over 389 million searches, an 11% growth. AOL’s search share is now just over 6%. Rounding out the top 5 was ASK.com Search with 159 million searches, 33% growth. Ask.com now accounts for 2.6% of all online searches.