Nielsen Search Numbers for Nov.

Nielsen reported that total search volume was flat at 5.1 billion (vs. October). The following were the search market share numbers:

  • Google: 46%

  • Yahoo!: 23%

  • MSN Search: 11%

  • AOL: 7%

Here are the November comScore numbers:

  • Google: 39.8%

  • Yahoo!: 29.5%

  • MSN Search: 14.2%

  • AOL: 8.7%

Here's Hitwise:

  • Google: 61.8%

  • Yahoo!: 25.6%

  • MSN Search: 5.1%

There's some general consistency regarding the Yahoo! search numbers, but wide variation regarding Google. Nielsen is the middle number between the very high Hitwise and the lower comScore figures.

Nielsen also reported that consumers are using "the search box" (this would apply to toolbars, which account for 12 percent of search activity per comScore) like "White Pages":

Web surfers often use search engines to navigate their way to common Web sites rather than typing the Web site's URL directly into the address bar. Web users' top search terms were popular, well-known Web site names, such as "ebay" and "google," … [and] 43 percent of online searchers use the search box much like an address bar. Leading the top 10 most popular search terms for November was "ebay" with 13.9 million requests, followed by "google" and "yahoo," with 13.3 million and 8.0 million requests, respectively.

So there are some interesting SEM (and trademark) implications of this behavior. But more on that later.

Here's Nielsen's list of the top 10 U.S. search terms for November for the combined home and work audience (000):

1. "ebay" 13,871
2. "google" 13,301
3. "yahoo" 7,997
4. "mapquest" 7,431
5. "yahoo.com" 6,528
6. "pogo.com" 4,062
7. "walmart" 3,688
8. "ask jeeves" 3,389
9. "msn" 3,166
10."ebay.com" 3,125

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