google-ranked-1 Businesses need to know where people are going to make their searches.   A smart business owner wants to know these trends and make sure that their company is represented well on the search engines.  A trend is certainly unfolding amongst the big search engines.  The big one is that Google continues to gain market share and Yahoo! continues to drop.

Google Makes the Single Biggest Gain In January 2009

Search Jan-09 Dec-08 Nov-08
Google 81.48% 81.26% 81.11%
Yahoo! 10.22% 10.43% 10.47%
MSN 2.95% 2.96% 3.00%
AOL 1.94% 1.96% 2.01%
Live 1.67% 1.59% 1.56%
Ask 0.97% 0.96% 1.03%
Other 0.12% 0.13% 0.13%

For a change I think that it is worth mentioning not only the trend of Google’s continued rise, but the ramifications of a dwindling search market with Yahoo!.  Those that follow search engine news know that Microsoft tired and failed to buy Yahoo! in 2008.  The feeling was that it was undervalued.  If this trend continues, month after month, the board at Yahoo! and its shareholders may have to wonder whether they shouldn’t have taken the offer when they could have.

Here are the movers in January 2009

  • Google is now up from 81.11% in November 2008 to 81.48% in January 2009
  • Yahoo! search is now down from 10.47% in 2008 to 10.22% in January 2009
  • While MSN is slightly down ‘Live’ has risen from 1.56% in November 2008 to 1.67% in January 2009

More SEO Reading?

Read Colin’s Search Marketing Outlook for 2009

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