Ooops! Chitika network error inflates Google's local search volume data

The figures were impressive, showing Google ahead of both Bing and Yahoo in terms of local search volume and mobile traffic. However, Chitika have now become aware of an error that caused the Google figures to be significantly affected.

"Over the weekend we became aware of an inadvertent network error which caused Google mobile search share to be inflated by 19% in this particular study," said Chitika public relations analyst, Andrew Waber, in an email to me today.

The revised Chitika figures show the search engine is more in line with Bing and Yahoo. Local traffic on Google dropped from 43% to 24.2% - a drop of 19% - bringing it more in line with Bing (28.81%) and Yahoo (25.28%).

Similarly, instead of 74% of Google's local traffic attributable to mobile devices the figure now stands at just 16.7%, rather more in line with Yahoo's revised figure of 15.9% and Bing's 5.21%.

Thanks to Andrew for alerting me to the error, and for providing the revised data.

"As with all of our studies, Chitika Insights employs a rigorous set of technical checks to ensure these types of errors do not occur. The error in the system has since been fixed and will not impact any future reports," he said.

Tags: Bing, Google, local search, mobile, mobile search, search engine, search traffic, search trends, Yahoo