Does Google really only have about 65% to 70% of the US search market? Or is it really more like other countries where Google’s market share is closer to 90%?
That was the topic of our “Discussion of the Week” last week on Sphinn, which asked What do you think Google’s U.S. market share really is? Reporting agencies like comScore and Experian Hitwise consistently put Google’s US market share at about 65-70%, with Bing/Yahoo picking up most of what’s left. But most commenters believe Google’s share is higher than that. There was no single comment that stands out this week as a favorite, but the general consensus in that discussion is that Google’s US market share is probably between 80-90% of all searches.
What do you think? It’s not too late to read the conversation and share your thoughts, too.
Elsewhere on Sphinn, an article that shares a comprehensive list of blogging tools was the most popular story last week among Twitter users. Read on for the full recap of last week’s activity on Sphinn.
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- Discussion: What do you think Google's U.S. market share really is? – When the online measurement services send out their monthly market share numbers, Google's U.S. market share is usually pegged at around 65% to 70%. But some say it's probably higher than that, perhaps even as high as 80-90% (which is the case in many other countries). In our "Discussion of the Week," we want to know what you think Google's U.S. market share is and why. The floor is open!
- New Clarity on Reconsideration Requests from Google's Tiffany Oberoi – Endorsement by Matt Cutts: Every SEO/search person should read this interview by Eric Enge. It comes with tons of great info about how reconsideration requests work at Google.
- Leveraging your SEO for Search Retargeting – A way to use retargeting to target previous visitors from your SEO efforts.
- Google+, Identity and SEO (Oh My!) – A solid piece on Google+ and how it could impact search, advertising, etc. If you read it carefully, it could help inform your SEO strategy circa 2012 and beyond.
- 10 Ways to Beat Online Obscurity – Good article from Demian Farnworth on growing an audience in a very crowded social media/online marketing landscape.
- More Detailed Thoughts on Google’s Place Page Shift – David Mihm offers his analysis on the latest Google Local Search news.
- Google's Negative Ranking Factors – By now you've heard about SEOmoz's study of Google ranking factors, but what about negative ranking factors? Sure, positive factors such as the correlations between social media shares and higher rankingsearn a lot of attention – and they should.
Most Tweeted (not already listed above)
- Ultimate List of Blogging Tools for Pros – Really deep collection of blog related tools.
- An Interview of Branko Rihtman (AKA: SEO Scientist) – Aaron and Branko talking = equals a must-read for SEOs.
- SEO Techniques for Large Sites: How to Maximize Product Visibility in Organic Search – A very comprehensive piece by Adam Audette. Great for large, complex sites.
- Mind the Bid-to-CPC Gap in Paid Search – An sophisticated look at advanced PPC bidding techniques.
- The Cat in The Hat Teaches SEO – Instructions of how to use A/B Testing & PPC to inform keyword research as explained by the Cat in the Hat.
Hot On Sphinn: July 25 to July 31, 2011
- How Being “Friends” On Google+ Leads To Better Rankings – A very interesting observation from Danny Sullivan on how Google+ is apparently influencing natural search results.
- 6 Ways Google Gets Your Social Data – Bas van den Beld describes the 6 ways in which Google gets our social data in order to figure out what we like and give us personalized results.
- How Images Improve -or Destroy – Conversion Rates – Cool post describing the nuances of how online images affect people, subtly manipulating them furthers towards or away from a conversion.
- Guest Blogging as a (Promotional) Link Building Strategy – The biggest mistake I see when folks attempt to guest blog is that they think it’s all about them. They’ll write what could double as a press release for their company or website and then wonder why they can’t find any blogs that want to publish it…
- SEO Shop Puts 50 Google +1s on Sale for Just $9.99 – So let me get this right: buy +1 spam votes to not make your spam look spammy?
- Exactly How Valuable Are People With High Klout Scores? – My question is: Does a person’s Klout actually determine the impact they have on their audience? Can we predict that those with high online influence can directly persuade others into action? I scoured the Twitterverse for some of Ad.ly’s sponsored messages and used our Compete.com data to determine each celeb’s actual impact on website traffic for the days surrounding their endorsement.
- Email Is (Still) Important And Here Is Why – So, where does this leave email? Has the @ symbol lost its meaning as an address, and instead become the signifier of a Twitter name? I think that we need to radically reconsider our approach to email in this changing landscape and understand that it can be a powerful tool when leveraged correctly.
- Google Places: Integrating some of the great information that’s been buried – Mike covers the updates recently rolled out for local search.
- Multi Channel Funnels in Google Analytics – Good post on using and understanding Google Analytics’ multi-channel funnels.
- How To Filter Brand Terms From Generic Using Custom GA Segments – An original, advaned piece from Stephen Coombe on Youmoz, digging deep into GA.
- Get Over Yourself And Give Me A Link (please) – The always amazing Debra Mastaler tells us how she netted 131 incentivized links for low cost AND without using all those hip social media methods.
- No, Local SEO Isn’t Dead … But It Is a Wee Bit Harder – You probably know by now that Google launched a new-look Place Page yesterday. The major changes are a heavy emphasis on Google’s self-sourced reviews and the elimination of citations/references from displaying on Places Pages. Say what?!? No more citations on Place Pages? Yes … but don’t let anyone convince you that citations, or local SEO in general, are dead. Here’s why…
- How Google Might Rank Pages Based upon Usage Information – Interestingly, the patent application was filed on February 24th of this year, the same date that the first Google Panda update went into effect.
This is the latest in a weekly look at the stories that were “hot” on Sphinn in the past week. We’ll post these recaps every week.
Related Topics: Channel: Other | Features: General | Sphinn
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