Nielsen Online has a report out for MAY 2008 data on the top U.S. SEARCH PROVIDERS. As a reminder, this is "US SEARCH" rather than global search. But it shows that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is still killing Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO). This shows that total US search grew by 9.5% in May 2008 over May 2007. A couple standout names were the large increase seen at Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), followed by additional gains at IAC/InteractiveCorp. (NASDAQ: IACI) with its Ask.com, and lastly the drop seen at Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) for its AOL search unit.
Provider Searches(000) Y/YChange MarketShare
ALL Search 7,849,553 +9.5% 100.0%
Google Search (GOOG) 4,654,624 +15.4% 59.3%
Yahoo! Search (YHOO) 1,328,667 -13.8% 16.9%
MSN/Windows Live (MSFT) 1,043,848 +72.4% 13.3%
AOL Search (TWX) 322,454 -15.6% 4.1%
Ask.com Search (IACI) 168,568 +18.4% 2.1%
As a reminder, every single search measurement out there gives different levels of readings and frequently the data conflicts from source to source.
Jon Ogg
June 19, 2008