Google vs. Yahoo: Which users spend more?

Everyone with an Internet connection and even some who don't have one know that Google is the most highly trafficked search engine. What many marketers what to know, though, is which search users are the more prolific online shoppers and researchers. According to a recent Hitwise report, that also goes to Google.

by Kristina Knight

The report, originally written in February 2008, has been updated. It indicates that Google users spend more money online; Google users are also slightly older than Yahoo users, possibly accounting for that difference. The younger a user base is, the more likely those users will have to wait to make both large and small ticket items.

What is most interesting from this update is that Yahoo is closing the gap on Google. Now, the gap is still wide, but Yahoo is gradually growing closer to their biggest competitor.

According to the charts, Google users are most likely to have spent $500 or more online, are likely to live in an affluent section of suburbia or be college-educated and living in urban sprawl areas of their cities.

Yahoo users, by contrast, are likely to be young singles with some disposable cash, live in rural areas or have a blue-collar background.

So which user base is most appealing? Actually, a blend of both. Marketers need to remember that completely ignoring one user base in favor of another is hubris. Both user bases have positives and negatives and both user bases are likely to need your products and services.