back to article Dear Google: Just how mammoth is your search share?

Just how big is Google's share of the all-important web search market? According to the market-research types at comScore, the Mountain View Chocolate Factory controls about 66 per cent of all searches - at least in the US. Meanwhile, HitWise puts that figure closer to 72 per cent. But surely, there's one organization that's …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Consumers drive market share

    An interesting point to add to all this is that Google doesn't force people to use it's search engine. People are quite capable of making the choice to use it all on their own. Same goes for Microsoft and it's products. So long as everything is conducted in a voluntary manner, what's the harm? 60%, 70%, 80% of the market? Hardly a monopoly, unless we are using some weird definition of the word. From what I understand, a monopoly has 100% of the market, and the only example I can think of that has a monopoly on anything is the State.

    1. DavyBoy79
      Boffin

      Monopoly doesn't 100% of the market

      "In economics, a monopoly exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it"

      So they don't need 100% of the market, just be big enough that they can control it, and let's face it, Google *DO* control their market!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      "Same goes for Microsoft"?

      What are you smoking, exactly?

      I assume you've not seen any of the excellent Bill Gates emails released as parts of various court cases where he discusses ways to force people to use his products by removing all alternatives..

      Just a taste:

      http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2010011422570951

    3. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Anarchei...

      I don't like to criticise, I really don't, so I'll phrase this constructively...

      Your understanding of economics is very, very poor.

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
    WTF?

    A better question ...

    Would be why Google has such a large search share ?

    I suspect the answer is that it gives more users what they want than other search engines do, and through that have become the dominant brand and first choice associated with searching.

    For all my dislike and hates of Google ( Virgin Media handing Google all my email on a plate while restricting attachments and having broken POP / IMAP implementations ) I still use Google for searching. I've tried others but keep coming back to Google because it suits my needs best, gives better results IMO.

    I've never clicked on any advertisement, I'm simply blind to those just as I was to pop-ups in the old days. If others want to click on them that's fine by me, if advertisers want to pay for things I ignore that's also fine. All I want is decent search and Google has that sewn up, has done since the day they launched.

    It's all the other evil with Google which I worry about.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Indeed

    You fear governments and their Big Brother tactics, meanwhile friendly , lovable Google ( 'Do no evil!' ) is slowly tracking and tracing it's way to 1984, right under our noses. Then again, isn't that how all the nest SciFi novels predict man's enslavement, something that no-one ever suspected suddenly arrives from nowhere and puts everyone under control?

  5. Fred Flintstone Gold badge
    Coat

    Can't you just, well..

    .. Google it?

    :-)

    The flasher mac, thanks.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not yet....

    We don't need to worry until Google is slow, bloated and buggy and has hidden all it's functionality in some stupid fecking "ribbon" at the top of the screen - oh, wait a minute...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    erm... not quite

    <quote>Certainly, Google has more accurate data on its very own search market share than anyone else<quote>

    er... I'm not sure I see how that's supposed to work. If certain consumers aren't using Google search, then intrinsically it makes it very hard for Google to work out how many of them there are. If we take Google's assertion that it doesn't integrate consumer data from various platforms (ie from AdSense-populated sites, from Blogger, Youtube etc) at face value, then there is no way that I can see that would allow them to work out the share of the search market that they don't have.

    And for the purposes of industry PR, they would generally use comScore anyway - it's the largest of the web metrics services, and seems to be the most commonly quoted in the US. However, even within comScore there are about 4 different metrics for query share that can be used; my guess is that Google will just be using the one that consistently gives them the highest share figures.

  8. Vinny

    Mathematics.....?

    Quote "If the size of the web doubles, Google's search business nearly doubles as well."

    No matter what the original % share Google has, if the size of the web doubles, then surely their business doubles too?

  9. Imagus
    Big Brother

    It really isn't that hard...

    ... to give up Google altogether and still enjoy the web. I've been using IXquick as search engine for over a year now, along with Scroogle and Clusty. Haven't missed Google for a minute. I also don't use any other Google services and have blocked most of the Google-related adresses (Adsense, Analytics, Ey-in etc.) in my hosts file (check out the little program called Hostery). The web can still be a very enjoyable place without that arrogant Google-monster constantly lurking over your shoulder.

    1. SemSemSam

      Re

      That is so lame, a rubbish search engine that doesn't log your IP address, what a great deal, I have tried it and is so so bad, nothing accurate,.

  10. gimbal
    Stop

    Well, hadn't seen that coming

    Oh boy. The Dems are going to tell Google how to run a legitimate business. That ought to work out well....

  11. ChessGeek

    Bing!

    I've been using Bing and have had no problem finding what I want. Google is a habit, not a necessity.

  12. D. M
    Flame

    MS is not problem?

    I don't know what she's been smoking, it is certainly strong. Google may not be friendly as it wants people to believe, but you can search perfectly fine without it. Can you do without MS? There are too many software only runs on Windows.

    Google is not even remotely evil comparing with true evil namely MS/Intel/RIAA/MPAA/Apple/Sony/etc.

  13. mhenriday

    Google's search market share ?

    According to StatCounter, around 90 % worldwide (http://preview.tinyurl.com/y95h4s9 ), 95 % in Europe, 92 % in Asia (surprising, as market share in China is only around 45 %), 97 % in South America, 95 % in Oceania, 94 % in Africa, and 83 % in North America. «Mammoth» would seem to be an adequate description. One thing to remember is all this, however, is that there's no lock-in ; if I wish to use a different search engine there's a plethora from which to choose....

    Henri

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