Posts Tagged ‘microsoft’
Bing Growing, Yahoo Steady - Search Engine Market Share Update
It’s been almost seven months since I last provided insight into the search engine market shares based on click through activity. After holding relatively steady for months, this latest update shows Bing has grown by 2.0%. Perhaps most interestingly, it’s no longer growing at the expense of Yahoo, which was previously the case.
Here’s the raw numbers:
| Yahoo | Bing | Other | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 7 | 78.68% | 11.51% | 6.80% | 3.01% |
| September 14 | 78.35% | 11.13% | 6.50% | 4.02% |
| September 21 | 77.43% | 11.35% | 7.11% | 4.11% |
| September 28 | 77.65% | 10.80% | 7.27% | 4.28% |
| October 4 | 77.78% | 10.66% | 7.23% | 4.33% |
| October 12 | 77.78% | 10.66% | 7.21% | 4.35% |
| October 18 | 77.89% | 10.65% | 7.29% | 4.17% |
| October 25 | 77.83% | 10.56% | 7.56% | 4.05% |
| November 1 | 77.75% | 10.46% | 7.66% | 4.12% |
| November 8 | 77.96% | 10.21% | 7.75% | 4.08% |
| November 15 | 77.60% | 10.39% | 7.59% | 4.42% |
| November 22 | 77.59% | 10.41% | 7.67% | 4.37% |
| December 22 | 78.43% | 9.73% | 7.86% | 3.97% |
| Month of June 2010 | 75.93% | 9.94% | 9.82% | 3.83% |
Eightfold Logic collects data from a network of web sites distributed globally. The data used in this reports represents web sites distributed globally, accessed by searchers located in the U.S., and reflects click-through activity data.
Poll: Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Microsoft, Nokia, Best User Experience?
I’ve received quite a bit of email about the post showing how Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android OS powered phones are surging, but Google’s seem to drive more people online. I’m not ignoring Nokia’s offerings, nor do I dismiss the Palm systems, Microsoft mobile etc. In fact, I think Microsoft’s next version of mobile OS could be great!
The point is, each of the phones have definitely addressed different marketplaces. Google and Apple’s offerings definitely appear to be targeting the same groups, and at least from the perspective of enticing people to surf the web, Google seems to be doing a better job.
I’ve had a few people email me that they use apps on the iPhone to fetch info, and perhaps this accounts for the difference in numbers. Unfortunately, since most of the top apps are available for both platforms, this is unlikely to be a factor. As a side note, Apple’s App Store blows away Google’s.
So, tell us, which phone’s OS / Browser combination do you think offers the best web browsing User Experience? Remember, you don’t need to own one to vote for it. This has nothing to with best of email, call quality, etc.
Previous poll: Are Tweets Effective Interruption Marketing?
Which Mobile Browsers have the Most Sophisticated Users?
Since I just posted about desktop browser usage, and reported that Mac users may not be, by default, any more sophisticated than Microsoft users, I thought it might be interesting to look at mobile browser usage.
Looks like Blackberry users view the least pages per mobile browser sessions (that’s me), and surprisingly, Palm Pre users are the fastest browsers. On the whole, not a lot of difference across the browsers, which surprised me. I though that iPhone and Android users would exhibit dramatically different behavior than others.
| Mobile Browser | Average Pages Viewed | Average Time on Site |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone | 2.49 | 02:38 |
| Android | 2.45 | 02:51 |
| BlackBerry | 2.13 | 02:48 |
| Palm Pre | 2.78 | 02:36 |
| IE Mobile | 2.48 | 03:13 |
About the data. Enquisite works with thousands of sites worldwide and captures a trove of relevant search-related data every day. The browser shares reported here are based on data from a selection of Enquisite-tagged sites that cumulatively represent over 350 million page views/month, across most major industry sectors - a very significant sample size. The data reported solely reflects our data.
Browser Share Report and More…
Last week I posted some information about user behavior in relation to depth of visit. This week I’m going to share some data regarding how different browsers result in varying user behavior.
For the month of November, I decided to break down the user behavior differences behind Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE), Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Google’s Chrome. At first glance one would assume that if someone visits a web site time on site and pages viewed should not be affected by browser. Yet, this is not the case. One could argue that Chrome and Firefox users are more sophisticated, as evidenced by the fact that they deleted their default browser, Safari and MSIE usage is almost identical, which should be the norm if default browsers were used, as it reflects the simplest behavior patterns. The most sophisticated users would change away from the defaults, and be faster / less patient in navigating sites.
Are Mac users really any more sophisticated than Windows users; perhaps not…?
| Browser | Percentage of Visitors | Average Pages Viewed | Average Time on Site |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSIE | 60.38% | 4.60 | 0:04:08 |
| Firefox | 25.08% | 3.85 | 0:03:42 |
| Safari | 8.58% | 4.33 | 0:04:01 |
| Chrome | 3.42% | 3.65 | 0:03:35 |
The change in browser usage away from MSIE is truly stunning. I’m going to monitor this drop, and Chrome’s surge in case it was Holiday related. Stranger things have happened.
About the data. Enquisite works with thousands of sites worldwide and captures a trove of relevant search-related data every day. The browser shares reported here are based on data from a selection of Enquisite-tagged sites that cumulatively represent over 350 million page views/month, across most major industry sectors - a very significant sample size. The data reported solely reflects our data.
Google Search Update: Ranking Report Really is Dead (finally)
This week I had the pleasure of moderating and speaking at SES Chicago. It was probably my favorite Chicago show yet. What a change from last year when everyone was nervous about how deep the economy would slide into chaos.
One subject that did create some buzz - no surprise - was Google’s announcement of an always-on personalized search. There’s been lots written about it, and the change truly is spectacular. Unfortunately, spectacular doesn’t always equate good.
Rather than dwell on all the questionable issues that the always-on personalized search system raises, I’m going to comment about something that’s actually good in this update: The death of the ranking report. Finally! Finally, rankings are totally meaningless as a reporting metric. Ranking reports which scrape results to identify a position in the search results have been deceptive for years, but now they are unquestionably and completely useless. Anyone providing a ranking report as authoritative is deceiving their clients.
In a way, I am thrilled with Google’s personalization changes, as they make the performance reporting used in Enquisite Optimizer even more valuable. It now is definitely the only real way to measure true page and rank positioning. Optimizer shows where people located anywhere in the world are finding your site in the results, based on actual click-through activity, not some bogus ranking report. This is only analytical platform which report back to you on what your customers are actually seeing in the search results.
People who use traditional ranking reports as a reporting metric are no longer able to report any meaningful data. First off, the data collected are unique to that computer. Second, other activity from that computer affects the results. Run just one site’s reports from a system? Do anything else with it? Anything you search for with that computer can now affect the results you’re seeing. Wait until Caffeine rolls out, and anything you do with that computer will cause variations. Use Google Docs, Gmail, or any other Google products? Your results will vary.
So how can any ranking report based on what one, or even 100 computers which repeatedly run ranking analysis reports be accurate? They can’t. The ranking report you used to use as a metric is dead.
If, as a user, you’re not comfortable with the new personalized search “benefit” just wait for caffeine to roll-out in full next year. Me? I’ve already changed my default search engine in Firefox to Bing. Strange, I’m not concerned about how responsibly Microsoft will handle my information.
Weekly Search Engine Market Share Report Nov 15, 2009
For the first time in months, our weekly trend data of search engine market share as defined by click-through activity shows a small drop in the growth trend on the part of Bing. However, Microsoft (MSFT) has still gained almost a full point of market share over the last two months. Yahoo’s share of search referrals rose a little this week.
As always, we’re providing the data in weekly breakdowns to try and identify trends in very granular ways. This data reflects actual clickthrough activity, and not the number of queries run. Meaning if someone performs a search on Yahoo, but doesn’t click through to the results, we don’t track it. We only track searches which generated referrals.
The raw data for those who prefer the numbers, not the graphics:
| Yahoo | Bing | Other | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 7 | 78.68% | 11.51% | 6.80% | 3.01% |
| September 14 | 78.35% | 11.13% | 6.50% | 4.02% |
| September 21 | 77.43% | 11.35% | 7.11% | 4.11% |
| September 28 | 77.65% | 10.80% | 7.27% | 4.28% |
| October 4 | 77.78% | 10.66% | 7.23% | 4.33% |
| October 12 | 77.78% | 10.66% | 7.21% | 4.35% |
| October 18 | 77.89% | 10.65% | 7.29% | 4.17% |
| October 25 | 77.83% | 10.56% | 7.56% | 4.05% |
| November 1 | 77.75% | 10.46% | 7.66% | 4.12% |
| November 8 | 77.96% | 10.21% | 7.75% | 4.08% |
| November 15 | 77.60% | 10.39% | 7.59% | 4.42% |
Enquisite collects data from a network of web sites distributed globally. The data used in this reports represents web sites distributed globally, accessed by searchers located in the U.S., and reflects click-through activity data.
A Chat with WebProMinute's Bill Cullifer
The Yahoo-Microsoft search partnership seemed to be the hot topic on everybody’s mind at the SES conference this week. To learn more about what the folks from Enquisite think this means for Web professionals and the overall search industry, check out this podcast interview between Bill Cullifer of WebProMinute and Enquisite’s own, Richard Zwicky.
Microsoft Bing Tracked
Someone asked me yesterday if we could report on Microsoft’s Bing search engine. They were concerned because their present analytics vendors, (plural) were not tracking it properly or at all.
I am happy to confirm that yes, we added bing.com upon its release, and you are able to see it recorded within your Enquisite Optimizer search analytics reports.
I was chatting with someone in Marketing from Bing.com last night at the SMX Advanced event in Seattle, and they were quite interested to find out we were already tracking their results, and I proposed that we publish a note next week, and subsequent follow-on posts about how their marketshare is evolving. She was excited to see the results. So, next week, I’ll start putting together data to post on Bing.com’s evolving marketshare.
Keep watching this space…