04 September 2007

Significant user overlap among search engines

Major search leaders experienced significant audience overlap with other top companies from June to July, new research has revealed.

The figures, produced by Neilson//NetRatings, suggest that Google Search, MSN/Windows Live Search and Yahoo! Search all shared a high degree of user overlap.

MSN/Windows Live Search had the highest number of its users also visiting other search engines, with 84 per cent of its audience going to Google Search, Yahoo! Search or both.

The aforementioned search companies were also found to enjoy high month-over-month visitor retention rates.

Search engine giant Google secured the highest user retention from June to July, achieving 79 per cent for home users and 85 per cent for work users.

Chief analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings Ken Cassar commented: "These search providers are doing a good job of bringing their visitors back month after month, which is an important sign of the health of their customer relationships and a measure with significant financial implications, given the expense of acquiring new customers."

The top three career development sites were also found to experience user retention, although to a lesser degree, with Monster.com, Yahoo! HotJobs and CareerBuilder Network experiencing an average retention of 38 per cent for home users.

Nielsen//NetRatings is a service provided by the Neilson Company, which is based in New York and Haarlem and operates in over 100 countries world-wide. It delivers internet media and market research.

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