Here’s some hints: 1) they just launched a voice/IM client; 2) they may be deflating their stock with a secondary sale; 3) the firm’s name rhymes with Google.
A press release bounced into the Murdok inbox, along with 327 more messages carrying the Netsky worm. And that’s just the fan mail. Nielsen//NetRatings, who inexplicably use two slashes instead of just one, released total search share figures for July 2005.
Google topped the list with 46.2 percent, a slight dip from 47 percent in June. Yahoo followed along with a July share of 22.5 percent, virtually unchanged from the previous month.
MSN Search in third with 12.6 percent was the only other search engine with a double figure share. AOL, My Way, Ask Jeeves, Netscape, Dogpile, iWon, and EarthLink rounded out the top ten by share.
Google also led in total searches per searcher, with Yahoo again right behind them. Searchers on Google averaged 27 searches while Yahoo had 20. Netscape and Dogpile broke into the list in the third and fourth positions, with MSN Search in fifth.
With little change in the numbers, it looks like no matter what the New York Times thinks of Google, millions of people consistently choose it repeatedly for their queries. It’s little wonder that Yahoo has been so aggressively making deals with the likes of Viacom and iVillage. Yahoo needs to erode that share if it wants to grow its business.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
