HITWISE UKSEARCH UPDATE

94% of UKinternet searches are powered by 14% of search engines

Consolidation among the leaders continues unabated

London, 6^th October 2005
Analysis by Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, reveals that the combined forces of the UK and .com properties of Google, Ask, Yahoo! Search, and MSN Search power 94% of UK internet searches. This equates to 14% of search engines (8 out of 57) powering 94% of searches.

Comparing the four weeks ending 1^st October 2005 and the four weeks ending 2^nd October 2004, the volume of searches powered by the combined UK and .com properties of Google, MSN Search, Yahoo! Search and Ask has increased by 70%.

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

Google powers over 7 in 10 UK internet searches

Google UK (www.Google.co.uk) continues to dominate the search engine market in the UK, powering 63% of all internet searches in the four-week period ending 1^st October 2005. Collectively Google UK and Google.com power 70% of UK Internet searches.

• Google UK also powers a much larger share of searches relative to the share of visits the site receives, indicating that for every visit to Google, users are performing multiple searches. Within one visit users seem to be performing a search, visiting a results page and returning to Google to perform another search.
  
• Visitors spent an average of 13  minutes on Google UK in the week ending 1st October 2005. This was just under two and a half minutes longer than the average session duration for websites in the Search Engines and Directories category that week. The long session time supports the idea that users are performing multiple searches on Google UK during each thirteen minute visit.

Google’s closest competitor, MSN.co.uk Search, powered 8% of UK internet searches in that same four week period ending 1^st October 2005.

In the US, Yahoo! Search is a stronger competitor. Amongst US internet users, Google.com powered 60% of all searches, compared to Yahoo! Search at 27% in the four-week period ending 1^st October 2005.

To request a full copy of the forthcoming Hitwise UKSearch Insight Report, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk/info/contact/uk_online_search_report.html

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the world’s leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise measures how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.

By monitoring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites.  Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as search marketing, affiliate programs, online advertising, visitor segmentation, content development and lead generation.

Hitwise collects Internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. 

More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.co.uk

For media enquiries, please contact:

Jannie Cahill
jannie.cahill@hitwise.com