Google Dominated by Search and in Search, Yahoo and MSN by Webmail then Search

News Type: Opinion — Sat May 20, 2006 1:26 AM EDT

technology, internet, google, yahoo, search, msn

According to recent traffic statistics released by Hitwise, Google still has a large lead as the number one search engine. Google dominates the search landscape with an estimated 47% market share , followed by Yahoo with 16% and MSN with 11% ( via hitwise). Based on an earlier report "search" makes up almost 80% of Google's traffic ( via hitwise). Search makes up nearly 40% of Yahoo traffic and nearly 48% of MSN's Traffic (via hitwise).

Looking at webmail Yahoo has a 42% market share, followed by 22% on MSN and a mere 2% for Google's GMail service. Newcomer MySpace has an impressive 19% share of mail, with much of that being internal and of questionable quality, let's set that to side. Looking at Alexa Yahoo is the number 1 ranked site for traffic followed by Google, MySpace and then MSN (via Alexa)

So for investors and advertisers the obvious question is is Google more than just search? Looking at the most recent Google Press Day it's clear they are continuing to develop new products and services, and while many like GMail are popular, for most people Google is just about search. What Google really seems to lack is away to tie all of these loose ended products together in a meaningful way. The problem is that sounds a lot like a portal. While Google looks more and more like a portal every day they've maintained, sometimes rather adamantly, that they are not now and will never be a portal. So that begs the question if you aren't going to tie everything together can all of the pieces separately amount to more than the sum of their parts? Looking at the traffic growth of sites like MySpace it's clear web users want to tie it all together in was that are helpful and meaningful. So while MySpace continues to dominate the social landscape they can't help people search and connect with the "outside world". In fact MySpace is the single largest supplier of traffic to Google (via hitwise). So will Google eventually give in and become the portal that consumers want, or will Yahoo and MSN figure out how to get search right and lock Google out of minds of the users?

8 Votes
Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.

Published to:

Atlas Web Group's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: none
Regions: none

Public Discussion (7)

What's this?

Who's leading the conversation?

This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

1.6

0.5

{"commentId":130880,"authorDomain":"akj"}

akj

FYI, your headline is confusing. I don't think it says what you meant it to say.

Also, Google is not a portal, nor does it ever need to be. If it had lists of links on the home page, that would be a start. Nobody else is really doing what Google does. They have similar services (search, webmail, etc.), but the structure is different. That is why Google has such a commanding market share - it is them and everyone else. The others are merely competing for the scraps from Google's table.

{"commentId":130880,"threadId":"1374","contentId":"209529","authorDomain":"akj"}

1 vote

#1 - Sat May 20, 2006 7:48 AM EDT

{"commentId":130940,"authorDomain":"behindmyscreen"}

Behind My Screen

yes, your headline is really confusing. BTW, it is no surprise that Gmail is not higher than 2%, msn and yahoo have been around a lot longer and people stay with one mailing address plus gmail is still by invite only.

{"commentId":130940,"threadId":"1374","contentId":"209529","authorDomain":"behindmyscreen"}

1 vote

#2 - Sat May 20, 2006 10:55 AM EDT

{"commentId":131229,"authorDomain":"theannalog"}

theannalog

Not quite -- you can get Gmail without an invite now, as long as you have a mobile phone. The phone thing is to cut down on spammers.

{"commentId":131229,"threadId":"1374","contentId":"209529","authorDomain":"theannalog"}

#2.1 - Sat May 20, 2006 8:24 PM EDT

{"commentId":131252,"authorDomain":"behindmyscreen"}

Behind My Screen

well... it is still a barrier to entry.

{"commentId":131252,"threadId":"1374","contentId":"209529","authorDomain":"behindmyscreen"}

#2.2 - Sat May 20, 2006 9:50 PM EDT

{"commentId":131051,"authorDomain":"nickford"}

Nick Ford

I've read the story and still don't understand the headline.

{"commentId":131051,"threadId":"1374","contentId":"209529","authorDomain":"nickford"}

#3 - Sat May 20, 2006 2:45 PM EDT

{"commentId":131067,"authorDomain":"acoolie"}

ACoolie

Headline extremely confusing..

Anyways, the closest Google comes to a portal is Google Personalized Home, but that isn't exactly a portal.

{"commentId":131067,"threadId":"1374","contentId":"209529","authorDomain":"acoolie"}

#4 - Sat May 20, 2006 3:21 PM EDT

{"commentId":131519,"authorDomain":"chronotron"}

Chrono Cr@cker

'Google Dominated by Search' - Actually you could have phrased the headline better. The idea does not pop into the minds after reading the headline.

Interesting that Yahoo!, MSN lead in the email sphere. But gmail is close catching up with hot features. Myspace is definitely the darkhorse, from a nobody to a top site on Alexa, it's come a long long way. fantastico!

Anybody here tried Windows Live mail, it's great.

{"commentId":131519,"threadId":"1374","contentId":"209529","authorDomain":"chronotron"}

#5 - Sun May 21, 2006 11:37 AM EDT

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"1374","isPrivate":false}

ATLAS WEB GROUP

Backyard

Google Dominated by Search and in Search, Yahoo and MSN by Webmail then Search

Published to:

FUN STUFF:

COMPANY STUFF:

LEGAL STUFF: