Local Searches Constitute 24% of Google Queries

Local businesses have always needed their advertisements to effectively target potential customers in their area. When it comes to advertising on the Web, this task is made more difficult with ads potentially reaching almost anyone in the world. One method for targeting messages to local customers is through a search engine, with the top three being Bing, Google and Yahoo! Chitika Insights looked to quantify how often each platform’s users preform local searches.

Google Usage Rates Vary Across Browsers

The now ubiquitous phrase “Google it” certainly points to a clear king of the search engine marketplace, but many prefer to do their “Googling” in a variety of browsers to take advantage of certain plugins, privacy features, and other attributes. With this in mind, Chitika Insights looked to measure whether the Web browser a person uses has any impact on the search engine they use.

Search Engine Market Share and the Portal Effect

The difference between our search engine market share numbers and comScore’s underscore a fundamental difference in search engine business models. On the one hand is Google’s model: search-and-go, get people out into the third party web. On the other hand is Yahoo!’s web portal model: provide a singular experience, give searchers what they’re looking for without having to leave the network of Yahoo! properties.

Firefox 2nd Most Influential Player in Search

Firefox appears to hold a lot of the cards in the search engine market share game. We looked at what percentage of search traffic coming into our network came from Firefox’s deal with Google – specifically, the Firefox start page and little embedded Google bar – and found that Firefox’s default search engine controls more of the search market than anyone besides Google themselves. Bidding war, begin! As seen in ReadWriteWeb