Baidu Giving Google Fits In China

August 3, 2009

Baidu, the upstart Chinese search engine, is giving Google a run for its money in the world’s most populous country.

In June, the 9-year-old company passed Google in market share for the first time, riding a head of stream.

Baidu edges out Google in China, according to Net Applications (Baidu share in blue)

Baidu edges out Google in China, according to Net Applications (Baidu share in blue)

The switch in leadership illustrates how intense of a two-horse race the Chinese market has become. Yahoo trails in a very distant third place.

According to Net Applications, Baidu had 51 percent of the market at the end of the month compared with Google’s 44 percent. Yahoo had 1.6 percent and Microsoft, less 0.9 percent.

“Baidu is on a major growth curve” and benefiting as Chinese users migrate from Google, Net Applications says.

Baidu now accounts for 9 percent of global search usage (topping Microsoft). It will prove a formidable foe for Google.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Search Market Grows, But Google Doesn’t Increase Its Market Share

April 15, 2009

The U.S. search market rebounded in March with Internet users generating 14.3 billion online queries, an increase of 9 percent.

Google ends March with 63.7% of the search market, up 0.4 points

Google ends March with 63.7% of the search market, up 0.4 points

But Google was unable to claim market share from rivals Yahoo and Microsoft.

The number of search queries had declined 3 percent in February, according to comScore. The turnabout may suggest consumers are returning to their pre-downturn habits, using the net to search for data and product information.

Despite the better environment, market shares among the top search engines remained essentially unchanged. Google’s share grew 0.4 points to 63.7 percent, comScore said.

Yahoo meanwhile lost 0.1 points of share to 20.5, and Microsoft gained as much to end the month with an 8.3 percent share.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Google Adds Interesting New Search Feature

March 24, 2009

Using an online search engine can be an art as well as a science. Sometimes picking the right search term or knowing exactly how to phrase a search isn’t clear.

Google has taken a step toward arresting the confusion by introducing on Tuesday a technology that helps link a search to other related topics.

Google says the technology tries to understand associations and concepts related to a search and proposes more useful related searchers.

New feature looks for topic related to a search

New feature looks for topic related to a search

These related searches are the items found at the bottom and sometimes the top of a search page,

Here is an example from a Google blog post. The new algorithms will associate a search for the “principles of physics” with related searches for “angular momentum,” “special relativity” and “big bang.”

A second improvement the company announced delivers more informative search results for longer search queries. For instance, a search for “earth’s rotation axis tilt and distance from sun” will return search results with more than just a few lines of explanatory text.

The greater length allows Google to highlight all the words query, instead of just a few, giving a user more information about the Web page.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Why Is Yahoo U.S. Not More Like Yahoo Japan?

March 11, 2009

Online search continues to be hot in Japan.

Searchers in the world’s third largest Internet market set a record in January by conducting 6.8 billion searches, an increase of 8 percent.

Home and work locations

Home and work locations

It is the highest monthly total on record, says comScore.

Just who led the search-engine pack? The surprising answer is Yahoo, the Japanese market leader responsible for handing 51.3 percent of all searches, with its volume rising faster than the market at 13 percent.

In an unfamiliar spot, Google is number two in the market with a 38.2 percent share. Growth was less than the market, at 5 percent.

The local engine, Rakuten, came in at a distant third with Microsoft trailing closely behind.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Search Market Bounces Back In January As Google Loses Share

February 19, 2009

Americans conducted 13.5 billion online searches in January, up 7 percent from December.

The growth in this core, online market place improved from a depressed pace at the end of 2008. Growth was 3 percent in December and, in November, the volume of searches in the U.S. actually fell 3 percent, in part because the month had one less day than October.

ComScore said the market shifted little from December and not in Google’s favor. Google lost 0.5 points of market share and ended the month with 63 percent of the market.

Yahoo gained the same amount of share and held 21 percent of the market in January. Microsoft gained 0.2 points of share to 8.5 percent and Ask Networks lost ground to fall behind AOL in the rankings.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Microsoft Uses Group Think To Try To Overcome Google

February 2, 2009

Microsoft researchers are looking at a novel approach to online search that attempts to come up with better results by mining data from contacts and social groups.

Company calls the experiment groupization

Company calls the experiment groupization

Called “groupization,” the technique examines the way people with similar interests or attributes search for information. Initial experiments using 100 participating Microsoft employees produced results judged to be better than today’s conventional search algorithms, according to a post Monday on a Microsoft blog and an article published recently by the Technology Review.

If successful, and if Microsoft overcomes the difficulties of tapping into data from groups of people, the new approach could give it a leg up on Google, which dominates search with 63 percent market share compared with Microsoft’s 8.5 percent.

Microsoft plans to present the results of its research at the Web Search and Data Mining Conference in Barcelona in mid February.

Microsoft grouped people by similar interests and found that while people believe they phrase search queries in similar ways, the idiosyncrasies of search terms very considerably.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Google Promises New Search Products And A YouTube Breakthrough

January 22, 2009

Google showed its business dodged the worst of the economic slowdown. Revenue rose 18 percent in the fourth quarter and impressed investors, who had lowered their expectations in recent weeks.

Were in a worldwide recession, says Eric Schmidt

We're in a worldwide recession, says Eric Schmidt

“It’s clear we’re in a worldwide recession,” CEO Eric Schmidt said Thursday  on a conference call. But the company cut costs and saw growth in most of its markets.

While it appeared that cost-per-click, a measure of ad profitability, fell in the quarter, business for Google was solid in the U.S. and in the emerging markets of China and Brazil.

The company also said it anticipated key innovations in the months ahead. There is a huge untapped potential in online search, said Schmidt.

What if Google could understand the meaning of words people type into search queries? The company has new products to roll out in this area, Schmidt said.

There also are “breakthroughs” coming this year in the use display advertising on YouTube, Schmidt promised. Nevertheless,  despite experimentation with advertising on the video site, “we’ve not found a single solution that drives revenue,” he said. “We’re working on that.”

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Microsoft Claim Of 5,000 Layoffs Is Not The Whole Story

January 22, 2009

Microsoft said this morning it would cut 5,000 jobs as it slashes costs to compensate for slower revenue growth.

The positions will come from marketing, sales, R&D, finance, legal, human relations and IT at the 91,000-employee company.  The jobs of 1,400 people will be eliminated on Thursday with the remainder disappearing during the next 18 months.

But that isn’t the whole story. The software giant plans to cut the cord to even more outside contractors – perhaps 15 percent of all it employs.

And it intends to hire several thousand people to fill new positions in businesses where it sees attractive opportunities, such as online search.

That means the total cuts to Microsoft’s staff will be more like 2,000 to 3,000 jobs, said CEO Steve Ballmer.

“We are in the midst of a once in a lifetime set of economic conditions,” said CEO Steve Ballmer on a conference call discussing the company’s disappointing second-quarter results. “The economic is resetting to a lower level of business and consumer spending.”

So at Microsoft, “we’re really putting the brakes on,” Ballmer said.

But the company is focused as well on gaining market share in markets it sees as ripe for growth. That includes: search; gaming, where is fields the Xbox 360 console; and cellular phones, where it sells Windows Mobile.

Ballmer also sees market share opportunities in Microsoft’s Office business.

“We have a lot of opportunities to work on market share,” Ballmer said.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

ComScore Sees Small Increase In December Search Queries

January 16, 2009

Online search sites saw 3 percent growth in December, according to comScore, a more modest increase than the 9.3 percent calculated by Compete.

In either case, however, search engine use grew despite the tight economy and the weak retail environment reported for the period.

Market shares held stable

Market shares held stable

ComScore said Americans conducted 12.7 billion searches during the month, with Google attracting 63.5 percent of them. The company’s market share was unchanged from November.

Yahoo attracted 20.5 percent of searches, up slightly from 20.4 percent in November and Microsoft’s market share was unchanged at 8.3 percent.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Online Search Saw Big December Jump In Users

January 16, 2009

Online search engines saw a big jump in use during December as consumers in the U.S. turned to the Internet to find holiday bargains.

The number of queries rose 9.3 percent in the month compared with November and 32 percent versus December 2007, according to Compete.

In total, 11.2 billion searches were conducted – record volume. Including Microsoft’s Live Search Club, the volume reached 11.6 billion.

The holiday season was difficult for retailers, but that wasn’t the case for search engines, said Alex Patriquin, senior associate.

Google attracted 70.5 percent of searches, its fourth month above 70 percent market share. That was a slight decrease from 70.6 percent in November.

Yahoo’s share gained slightly to 19 percent from 18.7 percent in November. MSN and Microsoft Live Search also rose slightly to 6.9 percent from 6.8 percent. Including Live Search Club, Microsoft’s share rose to 10.1 percent from 9.5 percent.

Compete

Source: Compete

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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