Google Continues to Gain Search Traffic Share

So much for the supposed improvement in other search services' user satisfaction ratings. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, Google (GOOG) gained search traffic share in July against all of its competitors other than Microsoft (MSFT) (which gained a tiny amount), despite Google allegedly falling behind in search satisfaction.

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Comments

[Travis Johnson:]

Incredible -- and the strategy of advertising heavily offline (especially TV) to drive new searchers to your site, as is being tried by Microsoft and Ask (and Yahoo in the past, though I don't know that they do it now), continues to seem like an expensive exercise in self-aggrandizement. I can't believe how many Ask.com ads I see on TV now, I'm very curious to see if that helps them at all to take share -- or at least keep up with the growth in the market -- in the months ahead. To think, Google built this dominance without spending a dime to advertise (OK, that's an exaggeration, but a small one).

2007 Aug 21 10:17 AM

[George R:]

Hi Paul,

I got an e-mail this morning that really annoyed me. Reading this post re market share for search engine companies just triggered my emotions.

The e-mail I received read something like this ..."George, the masses don't care whether the content they download from Google et al is stolen property or not ... they just want to get it lightning fast!"

WRONG! I don't believe that for one second. The "masses" simply do not know the risk these giant search engine companies put them in because the media has done a terrible job of getting this word out.

I know ... I have been fighting the battle against Internet piracy for over 15 years now. It is worse today than it has ever been ... by a factor of at least ten fold from what I can see.

Are you aware of the fact that prior knowledge is NOT a prerequisite for a copyright infringement claim in this country? In other words, everyone who downloads an unlicensed video, movie, song, photo or illustrated artwork (whether thye think it is authorized or not) from the Internet and publishes, displays, or performs it in any fashion has the potential of being liable to the copyright holder. And the consequences can be severe. We call it "willful blindness".

So why do the "masses" seem to encourage the access to, and reteival from, obvious piracy web sites through these search engine companies? Copyright infringement through the image search engines is blowing all piracy statistics (and attempts to curtail this epidemic) off the charts.

It is my firm belief that the only reason this is tolerated is a lack of knowledge within the vast majority of Internet users worldwide. Modern day's "silent majority"

Isn't it your job to inform them?

Curious to hear your answer to this question.

George P. Riddick, III
Chairman/CEO
Imageline, Inc.

[e-mail]...

2007 Aug 21 12:35 PM