Some interesting statistics from the fine folks at Neilson/NetRatings regarding Yahoo! MSN ranking #1 and #2 of all online search engines and portals. The stats below are for the week ending December 27, 2005:
Top 10 Online Search Engines/Portals & Communities Destinations:
#1 – Yahoo!
Audience – 69,659,000
Active Reach – 53.9%
Time Per Person – 1:11:56
#2 – MSN
Audience – 61,280,000
Active Reach – 47.41%
Time Per Person – 0:38:48
#3 – Google
Audience – 56,150,000
Active Reach – 43.44%
Time Per Person – 0:20:27
#4 – AOL (draws search results from Google)
Audience – 49,643,000
Active Reach – 38.41%
Time Per Person – 2:09:05
#5 – MySpace
Audience – 14,775,000
Active Reach – 11.43%
Time Per Person – 0:54:09
Now it’s important to note that these statistics don’t actually mean that Yahoo! and MSN are now in front of Google for the number of searches they process. These stats are overall visitors to the site and thus, someone visiting MSN for their MSN mail or Yahoo! for their store will increase the numbers (which also explains the significantly longer period of time people spend on Yahoo!). Additionally, one has to consider the number of engines that Google provides the results for (such as AOL at #4).
Nonetheless these numbers do indicate a shifting in the wind. Perhaps an indication that what we wrote in our last newsletter regarding MSN increasing their marketshare through 2006 is starting a bit early.