As March search stats were published by the other major third party measurement companies over the past few weeks I started to get a little worried about our post from a couple of weeks ago. So we decided to go a little deeper into our data and as a result we did an extensive page level look at our search counts. Low and behold, it turns out we got bitten again by the Club Live bug. You would think that after the hubbub raised over Club Live last July we would have learned our lesson. Ever since that post last July we have been filtering out Club Live generated searches. It turns out that in February, MSN launched some new Club Live games that generated a solid amount of interest and skewed our March search market share report. So here I am a couple weeks later, after umpteen blogs have reposted our numbers and any number of bloggers have contrasted our results with the other third party measurement folks. I was hoping to get this out before Danny put together this great analysis, but alas it did not happen.

The new, updated, better than ever overview …

• Google market share increased 0.6ppts on 6% m-o-m volume growth reaching a new record market share
• Yahoo! continued the slide with market share dropping another ½ point to a new record low
• Windows Live Search market share inched up slightly as volume gains moved just slightly more than the market
• Ask also moved one step ahead of the market with market share inching forward
• AOL was the only major engine to post a decline with volume off 4% m-o-m
• It’s still not easy being in the third party reporting game

*Search market share includes web search only for the Adult US Online Population and is calculated based on unique queries within each session during the given month.

Things were ticking along nicely in the search world with not so much as a speed bump to be seen (set aside the market panic about Google’s paid click decline). Then along came March. Overall volume of search in March exploded, with total queries increasing over 6% and surpassing the 9 billion mark. That’s the biggest month-over-month increase in total search volume since July of last year. Interestingly enough this growth was not driven by our perennial search leader Google. In fact Google actually underperformed the market for the first time in 9 months and saw market share decline more than ½ a point. So where were the big gains?

Windows Live search kicked into high gear in March. Month-over-month Windows Live search queries increased 28.8%, pushing market share up almost 2ppts to just over 10%. Year-over-year, Windows Live search queries were up nearly 52%. Wow! My guess is that there are some dollars flowing out of Redmond that may be driving this. Maybe this April fool’s joke wasn’t a joke.

Then there was Google. Normally 5% month-over-month gains in search volumes would be stellar considering the average for the past year has been about 3%. Unfortunately in March that 5% growth meant Google lagged the market by about 1% and saw market share dip back under the 70% threshold to 69.4%. That’s the first time Google has lost market share in nine months. Oh boy … what will the markets do now?

In other news Yahoo! just can’t seem to self arrest the precipitous seven month slide they are on. Query volumes remained essentially flat with market share dipping again to a new record low of less than 15%. Yahoo! holds the dubious distinction amongst the top 5 search engines of being the only one to post a year-over-year decline in market share. Ask managed to ride the market wave holding share steady while AOL continued to slip into oblivion.

The overview …

• Google market share declined 0.6ppts despite 5% volume growth … the first decline in nine months
• Yahoo! continued the slide with market share dropping another point to a new record low and was the only engine with year-over-year share losses
• There’s something going down up in Redmond with Windows Live Search queries increasing nearly 30% month-over-month to push market share up almost 2ppts
• Ask moved with the market with volume increasing a little over 6% and no change to market share
• AOL was the only major engine to post a decline with volume off 10% month-over-month
• March madness apparently goes well beyond the b-ball court

*Search market share includes web search only for the Adult US Online Population and is calculated based on unique queries within each session during the given month.

February is a critical time of the year for me personally. I have a lot on the line. Not only is February the month when Saint Valentine, the patron saint of Hallmark comes around, but it also happens to be the month of my wife’s birthday, and my mother’s birthday. Ouch! That is a lot of opportunity for trips to the dog house to come my way. Fortunately, I made it through the gauntlet relatively unscathed this year. In contrast to my own luck (read as: recurring annual reminders on cell phone), February was not too kind to the majority of the big search players. Of course February was kind once again to the biggest fish in the pond despite plenty of less than stellar market buzz.

Google officially crossed the 70% mark for the first time in February, according to Compete search market share numbers. 7 out of 10 web search queries performed in the US were performed on Google! The march up and to the right just doesn’t stop. Google’s search volumes have grown on average 3% per month since February last year, resulting in total year-over-year gains of over 50%. Obviously the story isn’t so rosy for the other players in the space.

The pain at Yahoo! is not limited to Jerry Yang coming to grips with potentially being the Silicon Valley subsidiary of the mighty Microsoft. February was another tough month for Yahoo! search as volumes declined nearly 7% from January and market share fell another point. MSN/Live search in turn dropped nearly 4% on the volume side resulting in a market share loss of about 0.3ppts. That’s a combined Microhoo market share loss of 1.3ppts since January 2008 and 7.1ppts since February 2007.

In other news Ask has thrown in the towel and decided to focus on working women. Then again maybe they aren’t … or are they? We’ll have to wait and see on that one, but one thing is for sure, despite February’s slight volume declines, Ask has been on the upswing over the past year. Ask query volumes were up nearly 56% since February 2007.

The overview …

• Google hits the big 70 for market share as the march goes on
• Yahoo! just can’t seem to escape the slippery slope dropping another point of market share
• MSN/Live seems to have caught some of the Yahoo! blues with market share off month-over-month and year-over-year
• Ask may or may not be for the overworked working woman, but they seem to be holding steady at large
• AOL ticked up in February on small gains and remains up year-over-year
• Is it any surprise that Saint Patrick comes to town with green beverages in tow right after Saint Valentine marches through?

* Search market share includes web search only for the Adult US Online Population and is calculated based on unique queries within each session during the given month.

Unless you were sleeping under a rock you probably heard the big search news last week and I’m not talking about Google posting record search numbers again in January. It’s hard to look at the potentially merger of Yahoo! and Microsoft in the vacuum of search. The impact on the display advertising space is far more substantial but I would definitely be remiss not to mention a few points of interest on the search side. The combined search market share of Yahoo! and MSN/Live would come in roughly around the 25% mark among the US online population. You have to put this in perspective though. A year ago this merger would have meant a combined market share of nearly 32% vs. Google’s January 2006 share of 62%. With all the rumors about this merger being in the works for over a year, if not longer, you have to wonder who’s taking it on the chin by sitting on this one. It certainly isn’t Google. MSN/Live has definitely been gaining some ground in recent months but Yahoo! has yet to stem the receding tide. I don’t see the combined forces of these two reversing the current trend. Of course with the amount of buzz surrounding the potential merger and the coincident news regarding Google’s slide in the markets we may see some interesting numbers for February.

Oh yeah … by the way … Google’s market share reached a record level again in January.

Remember January 2006? It was a tough month for almost everyone other than the big dog. Well the good news about bad months in history is that the bar is lower for the future. January 2007 was much kinder to almost all of the major search engines. Relative to year ago market share levels everyone except Yahoo! was either above or at par in January 2007. Month-over-month there was actually very little movement in market share. Almost everyone moved with the market as overall search query volume increased 5% from December. Google was biggest gainer on market share, but Yahoo!, Ask, and AOL all posted volume gains in January. MSN/ Live volume essentially remained flat month-over-month. It will be interesting to see if the buzz drives any curiosity to Yahoo! or Live search in February.

The overview…

• Google gained volume and share posting a new record of nearly 69% market share
• Despite volume growth Yahoo! market share decreased slightly from December
• MSN/Live market share declined slightly with volume essentially remaining flat
• Ask market share ticked up once more on strong query volume growth
• AOL market share held steady despite strong volume growth
• The volume of RSS feeds in my feed reader with the word Microhoo! in the title has declined 5,000% since last Friday

* Search market share includes web search only and is calculated based on unique queries within each session during the given month.

The end of the Super Bowl brought broken hearts to New England and elation to New York (and many other places). But it also brings the competition for some of the world’s biggest brands to capitalize on the record-setting price they paid for Super Bowl commercials. With prices reaching up to $3 million for a 30-second spot, which advertisers got the most for their money by connecting their ads to their online presence in search and social media? Check out Reprise Media’s Super Bowl scorecard to see which companies scored and which ones choked.

Compete and Reprise have been able to see past the Boston-New York rivalry and come together for a partnership to analyze data on user behavior and online traffic trends surrounding the Super Bowl. Compete will be collaborating with reprise on study later this month to understand the best and worst of online/offline advertising coordination. Check back towards the end of February to download the study.

Back in November you may recall we saw a pretty substantial uptick in the overall volume of searches being performed in the market. It appears that holiday driven growth slowed in December as the overall volume of searches in the marketplace was essentially unchanged in December. The US online population posted roughly 8.2 billion search queries in the final month of 2007. In general the status quo seen in the overall market was reflected in the individual performance of the major players.

Google continued its climb towards the stratosphere capturing 68% of all search queries in the US. Yahoo! stemmed the receding tide a bit but still lost a marginal amount of market share on slight volume declines. Unfortunately for Yahoo! the continued slide, albeit small, pushed them to a new low for market share. MSN/Live continued the good fight in December and actually outpaced Google with respect to percentage gains in volume. Year-over-year, MSN/Live total search volume was up nearly 40%. Ask held the dubious title of posting the largest overall decline in search volume in December. Although a 5% month-over-month decline in search volume after a substantial increase is hardly anything new to Ask. Despite the roller coaster ride, year-over-year Ask volume was up nearly 31%. Unfortunately, when you’re the little guy you need astronomical gains to make real headway. Market share for Ask was essentially unchanged from December 2006. Last but not least, AOL had the largest percentage gains in volume month-over-month with a gain of 5.5%. Despite year-over-year volume gains, AOL hasn’t been able to keep pace with the market and has lost market share from December 2006.

The recap …

• Despite “laws of big numbers,” Google volume and market share continue to climb to new record levels
• Yahoo! volume and market share decreased, but the descent did slow a bit
• MSN/Live market share inched up slightly with the largest overall volume gains
• Ask market share and search volume continued on the roller coaster with a decline in December
• AOL volume increased substantially and managed to squeak out a minor gain in market share

Footnote for December search share release:

A few months back we saw a pretty substantial drop in AOL searches and were a little concerned something might be up. Well we finally figured out what was going on and have adjusted our search share calculations accordingly. The good news is that AOL reporting is back on the table as you can see. The bad news is we had to adjust our market share numbers for some prior months. The trends and the volume estimates are still the same we just had to slightly adjust everyone downward to account for AOL. As a result, along with the standard data we publish, we’re providing you with all of the adjusted numbers for the months affected.

* Search market share includes web search only and is calculated based on unique queries within each session during the given month.