Outside the Beltway

MSN, Yahoo! Catching Up With Google

James Joyner · Friday, January 14, 2005 · 3 comments

MSN, Yahoo! Catching Up With Google (Boost Marketing)

Google is still the search leader but rival engines Yahoo! and MSN are starting to catch up. ‘Google is the king of customer experience in the search engine industry, but Yahoo!, MSN and Ask Jeeves are improving,’ said Dr. Bonny Brown, director of research and public services for Keynote Systems. Keynote conducted a survey of 2,000 web users for their opinions on the major search engines. Questions covering brand impact, customer satisfaction levels and future usage were asked. They compared the results of this poll with the same questions asked in May 2004 using the same demographic.

Google came out on top with 84 percent of those polled who said it’s their primary search engine. 61 percent of those questioned said Yahoo! is their primary search engine – a 20 percent increase from last May’s poll. MSN had a jump of 30 percent, with more people saying it was their main search engine. Microsoft’s total was a low but respectable 38 percent. It’s a nice turnaround for MSN as they are about to launch their new search engine to the general public.

Ironically, before one can read this story, one must scroll past all the GoogleAds. I found the story via GoogleNews.

Update (1519): A more clearly-reported version of the survey results:

Google maintained the top spot in consumer satisfaction, with 84 percent of users who tested Google in the survey saying they likely would make it their primary search engine. That figure is essentially unchanged from a similar survey Keynote released last May. By contrast, 61 percent of respondents who tested Yahoo said they likely would make it their primary search engine, a 20 percent improvement. MSN had 30 percent more users say they would use it as their primary search engine, though it still tallied just 38 percent. Respondents could give more than one answer.

“Google is very well established as the best search engine in the eyes of the consumer,” said Bonny Brown, director of research and public services for Keynote. “This time around, the ratings for Yahoo and MSN significantly increased. They’re getting closer to Google.”

So, this was a survey of customer confidence in search engines rather than of actual habit.

Hat tip to Wizbang commenter Fred.