Google continues to dominate paid search

Despite predictions in 2006 that paid search would continue to thrive, new research indicates search spending has been flat so far this year. SearchIgnite and RBC Capital Markets collaborated on a recent report which indicates Google is actually getting more revenue per search that other engines.

by Kristina Knight

Google recently changed their search algorithm which is likely the cause of the increase in revenue per search.

"Google's second quarter algorithm change continued to propel its leadership in monetizing search for large brand marketers, surpassing Microsoft, who has historically been able to monetize search very well, albeit with fewer eyeballs," said Roger Barnette, president of SearchIgnite (via MediaPost).

That change was made to cut down on the number of spam and splog results in Google search queries.

With the change in the algorithm and the name recognition that comes with being Google, the search giant captured just over 75% of the search spend and about 60% of the total searches. Comparatively speaking, Yahoo's Panama accounted for 34% of searches and 18% of the spend.

Because Google continues to dominate the search world for users some advertisers might be content to sink more money into the search giant. However those marketers might miss the bigger picture. Google is still dominating, but other search engines are beginning to close the gap albeit very slowly. Rather than counting on Google to bring users to websites, distributing paid search funds to several search engines will reach a greater number of users.