Yahoo!
Internet-traffic watcher comScore is putting out fresh data on search-engine market share for the month of February, and the Yahooligans are taking yet another step back.
Once again, Yahoo!'s loss is the gain of Microsoft's
Site |
Feb. '10 |
Jan. '10 |
Feb. '09 |
---|---|---|---|
|
65.5% |
65.4% |
63.3% |
Yahoo! |
16.8% |
17.0% |
20.6% |
Bing |
11.5% |
11.3% |
8.2% |
Ask.com |
3.7% |
3.8% |
4.1% |
AOL |
2.5% |
2.5% |
3.9% |
Source: comScore.
The results shouldn't surprise anyone. Bing has been gaining momentum since replacing Microsoft's effective yet personality-deficient Live Search. The world's largest software company has been aggressively marketing its edgy portal, to apparent success.
Market leader Google keeps inching higher, despite Bing's growth spurt. There's certainly room for more than one grower, since all they have to do is carve up the shells of Yahoo! and AOL.
And what about AOL? Time Warner
Barry Diller's Ask.com isn't fading away at the same pace as Yahoo! and AOL, which makes its modest decline over the past year a relative victory. It's not much of a threat to Google or Bing, but it may make IAC a compelling buyout target for Yahoo! or Microsoft in their efforts to make up the gap with Google.
This naturally leads us to Yahoo!, where market share has been a serial sinker since the company agreed to outsource its search to Bing. Yahoo! still generates a ton of traffic throughout its portal, but remains challenged to convert traffic into advertiser leads.
March's data should be more of the same. If Yahoo! or AOL don't see the desperation in their gradual fade, they should at least get their eyes checked. They're going to need new glasses as Google -- and eventually Bing -- get even farther away.
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