According to Nielsen Online, nothing earth-shattering happened in terms of search rankings between August and September; Google didn’t finally corner three-fourths of the market, and no major competitors switched positions. There were some significant losses and gains, though, and they affected the top search companies.
First, the search leader. Google lost its hold on the 60 percent mark as its share dropped 0.3 percent to 59.7 percent. This decline is the opposite of what Google usually accomplishes, of course, and while not too significant, could at least signal a slowdown. Yahoo, meanwhile, managed not to lose (or gain) even the tiniest bit of ground, staying at 18.1 percent.
This brings us to MSN/Windows Live Search, Nielsen’s third place search entity. Between August and September, its market share grew by 1.1 percent, leaving Microsoft with 11.8 percent. The gain’s impressive, and if it’s at all due to the partial Powerset integration, a greater improvement may be on the way. We also have yet to see what effect the SearchPerks program will have.
Finally, AOL’s market share headed 1.1 percent in a downward direction. It was the only competitor in the top five to experience negative year-over-year growth, too (of 24.6 percent). If the rumors are true about AOL and Yahoo are negotiating a takeover, this will weaken its position.
As always, we’ll tune in again next month.
