Recent statistics released by Hitwise have shown that Yahoo! has gained the most market share over the last year (2006 to 2007). Yahoo!'s market share increased by 13 per cent, taking them up to 8.6 per cent of the UK search market share. Despite Yahoo!'s substantial gain, Google remains the firm number one with 78 per cent of the market share. Google's share has increased by three per cent since last year.
MSN search, on the other hand, lost 25 per cent of their market share, and the search engine now accounts for 5.5 per cent of UK search market share. Ask.com also experienced a loss, dropping by two per cent to a five per cent share.
Yahoo! may be gaining market share at the expense of their smaller rivals, such as MSN and Ask.com, but they still have a long way to go in the fight to claw back search market dominance from Google.
The search engine market is fiercely competitive between its few top players. New search products and services are constantly being developed and launched to give users a better, more informative and more complete experience. With so many products on offer, search engines must consistently improve their offerings in order to gain market share and encourage brand loyalty.
The Hitwise statistics have been released just as the UK search market begins to expect the launch of Yahoo!'s Panama search marketing platform in the country, which was launched in the USA earlier this year.
Recently, Yahoo! launched their oneSearch mobile application in selected European countries, including the UK. oneSearch allows mobile web users to search the internet for almost anything, from news and weather to stock quotes and retail stockists. Yahoo! has also followed in the footsteps of Google this month by introducing a new gaming policy that bans casino and gaming listings which invite users to gamble from its paid search ads in the UK.
It's also been rumoured that Yahoo! are keen to buy Bebo, the UK's leading social networking site, in a move that would see them increase their presence in the British search market. The recent Hitwise statistics show that Yahoo!'s continued activity in the UK search market is engineering results, and the search engine seems to be showing every sign of continuing their dramatic expansion.
