Big boys dominate UK search market

More than 90 per cent of UK internet searches are powered by just four search engines.

According to web monitoring company Hitwise, the combined forces of the UK and .com sites of Google, Ask, Yahoo Search, and MSN Search power 94 per cent of UK internet searches. This means that just 14 per cent of search engines (8 out of 57) almost control the entire search market.

Heather Hopkins, director of research for Hitwise UK, said:
“These gains have been driven by growth in searches performed on Google UK and MSN.co.uk Search.

“MSN and Google have been extremely successful at promoting their search toolbars, driving up the volume of UK searches they power. MSN has also likely benefited from the default search page on Internet Explorer.”

Hitwise said the volume of searches on the four engines is also up, increasing 70 per cent since October last year.

Google UK continues to dominate the UK search engine market in the UK, powering 63 per cent of all internet searches in the four-week period ending 1 October.

Google’s closest competitor, MSN.co.uk Search, powered 8 per cent of UK internet searches.

In the US, Yahoo Search is a stronger competitor. Amongst US internet users, Google.com powered 60 per cent of all searches, compared to Yahoo Search at 27 per cent.