Google Maintains Search Online Market Share at 61.9%

ComScore has released its monthly analysis results for search market share in the U.S. showing a wider gap between Google and Yahoo.

Google sites had 61.9% of the market, while Yahoo! followed at a not-so-close second with 20.5%. The gap between the two has grown since June, when Google and Yahoo! controlled 61.5% and 20.9% respectively.

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Known Note:

It will be interesting to watch what happens with the search engine online market share as we head into and go through the upcoming holiday seasons.

Something to watch is consumer versus business search behavior when the need arises to get directions to make the perfect Halloween costume, to find the best homemade Turkey recipes for Thanksgiving, to get information on the best wines to serve with holiday dinners, searches on travel sites and gas prices sites as family members try to get together for the holidays, and not to be overlooked will be all the retail consumer goods searches to the large retail sites. And let's not overlook all things football and sports related.

Cheryl C. Cigan
Online Market Share
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From Chris Crum of WebProNews:

In research like that of ComScore's, the information should not be taken as gospel. As PCWorld points out:

ComScore's reports are not controversy-free. The company was criticized in April for a report on paid search clicks, as ComScore's measurements rely mainly on online recruitment techniques, usually dismissed by traditional pollsters. The search market share report presented yesterday relies on a similar panel with ComScore's controversial one from April...

That said, it doesn't look like Google has any threat to its search market share, and with their current push into the mobile sector, it is doubtful that any such threat will emerge in the foreseeable future.

Another Way to Increase Online Market Share by Understanding Search Behavior

Google AdWords Gains Insights For Search
By David A. Utter - Wed, 08/06/2008 - 7:02am.

New feature helps drill into people's expressed interests

Another addition to Google provides some extra details about search behavior on the dominant search engine.

The latest update at Google aims directly at the company's revenue stream. An advertiser-friendly feature called Google Insights for Search should help those visitors glean a little more information out of Google.

"It provides more flexibility and functionality for advertisers and marketers to understand search behavior, and adds some cool new features like a world heat map to graphically display search volume and regional interest," Elan Dekel and Niv Efron said on the Inside AdWords blog.

"Like Google Trends, you can just type in a search term to see search volume patterns over time, as well as the top related and rising searches. You’ll also have the ability to compare search volume trends across multiple search terms, categories (commonly referred to as verticals), geographic regions, or specific time ranges."

Insights for Search enables the viewer to enable various filters, to better drill down into activity around a keyword or phrase. As an example, a query for the forthcoming release of the movie Pineapple Express, filtered to look at the US, shows how much interest there is, state by state.

While Rhode Island tops the list for interest in the movie by Google's reckoning, fascination with its actress and Maxim cover girl Amber Heard is heaviest in California and other large-population states, less so in others.

That's a light-hearted look at what Google Insights for Search offers. We think the ability to look at the seasonality of queries will be helpful for our e-commerce readers, as it should help with the planning of ad campaigns throughout the year.

The Internet Selling Online Source of this article: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/08/06/google-adwords-gains-insights-for-search

Datran Media Report Shows Email Increasing as Top Branding Took

The Inbox as a Branding Tool
Research Reveals Email Increases Brand Favorability and Awareness

Marketers know that email can be a great direct response channel, encouraging consumers to take immediate action and help boost sales, but few thought of email as a powerful branding medium.

Until now.

A new study conducted by Dynamic Logic shows inbox advertising can provide significant branding benefits in addition to the acquisition strengths typically attributed to the media channel.

The study, conducted with Datran Media and eHarmony, reveals that inbox advertising made 37.7 percent of people aware of one of the tested campaigns. These people otherwise would not have been aware of it. In addition, unaided brand awareness increased 11.5 percentage points, and brand favorability increased 7.3 percentage points.

The results counter mainstream characterizations of inbox advertising as an acquisition-only vehicle. More than many other channels, inbox advertising gives companies the ability to deliver highly targeted messages to opt-in consumers. Because it significantly increases the chances of delivering the right message to the right consumer at the right time, inbox advertising can have the additional benefit of creating a more favorable impression of the company's brand.

"Until now, marketers hypothesized that the key role of inbox advertising was an acquisitive one, and there was no formal research to verify the branding benefits," said Jason Oates, vice president of media services for Datran Media. "This study makes it clear that inbox advertising provides significant brand impact across each of the key branding metrics, including brand favorability. This applies to both contextual ad inclusions and targeted stand-alone branded acquisition-focused email advertising."

eHarmony's CEO, Greg Waldorf, echoed Oates' remarks and added, "These results show that email campaigns are not only an effective customer acquisition vehicle, but also are supporting and enhancing consumer impressions of the eHarmony brand."

To view more specific results and to read more information about email branding visit Datran Media at http://www.datranmediabrandstudy.com.