I swung by iMedia Connection today, and saw a headline for a story that made my jaw drop. Underneath the headline "Yahoo! Outnumbers Google" was the statement "Despite Google's reputation, Yahoo! ranks as top search engine." Um... what is Nielsen Netratings smoking?
This statement is completely and utterly false. The numbers Nielsen is basing this statement on are numbers not just for search engines, but portals and communication destinations as well. Sure, Yahoo! may be the top portal, but that doesn't mean it's the top search engine.
This is a REALLY irresponsible statement for Nielsen to make, and I hope they correct it right away. The fact is, Google is by far the top search engine, and that's not up for debate. In fact, Nielsen's own search data from November of 2005 shows Google's search engine market share at 46.3%, and Yahoo! at only 23%. For Nielsen's statement to be true, Yahoo! would have had to steal half of Google's market share in a mere matter of months. Yeah, right.
How anyone at Nielsen or iMedia Connection could allow this slip-up is beyond me.
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