Whether on purpose or not, Google and Twitter are having a little back-and-forth this week about the size of their social networks -- or, maybe more accurately, about the activity levels on their social networks. Google+ has X amount of users and the +1 button gets served Y times per day. Twitter delivers N tweets every day and saw P new signups just yesterday. It's all quite reminiscent of the early/mid 2000s, when all of major search engines made a sport out of bragging over the number of pages they'd indexed. But does it mean anything? Well, yes and no. Let's dive in.... Google+ & [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Features: Analysis | Google: +1 | Google: Google+ | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Size | Top News | Twitter

The Pew Internet Project put out results of its first survey looking at smartphone ownership. Pew found that 35 percent of all US adults own a smartphone. When the base is just mobile phone owners however (83 percent of American adults) the number goes up to 42 percent. The numbers go even higher in certain population segments; among 18 to 44 year old smartphone penetration is 50 percent. By contrast Nielsen reported that 38 percent of US mobile phones are now smartphones, while comScore says the number 33 percent in the US. Pew also found that 87 percent of smartphone owners go online o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Stats: comScore | Stats: General | Stats: NetRatings | Stats: Size

ComScore came out with May mobile data for the US market this afternoon. The story line is largely the same as we've been hearing for the past several months. Android is up, everyone else is down and the iPhone is holding or slightly growing in its second place position. (However total iOS reach is greater than Android's.) The market share numbers in the table above are generally consistent with those previously released by Nielsen: Android: 38 percent iPhone: 27 percent RIM: 21 percent Windows Mobile: 9 percent WebOS: 2 percent Windows Phone: 1 percent ComScore says th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: comScore | Stats: Size

As part of its new "device essentials" data product release comScore put out some interesting comparative findings about web traffic patterns from a broad array of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. But among tablets we're really only talking about the iPad. According to comScore, the iPad represents "89 percent of tablet traffic across all markets." In the US the figure is 97 percent. Apple has sold roughly 25 million iPads to date globally, while competitors have seen disappointing sales so far. In Canada, the iPad drives 33.5 percent of all non-PC traffic, though comS [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: comScore | Stats: General | Stats: Size

We continue to hear about Facebook's 700 million users, on the way to a billion worldwide. According to comScore Google is already there, at least looking across all its websites. Google: The Biggest Network Of Sites The chart below, provided to us from comScore, shows the number of unique visitors that went to each company's network of web sites over the past year: comScore gets its data from a global panel of roughly two million internet users from which it extrapolates findings to the entire online population. This sampling methodology has been much criticized but remains the stand [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: General | Google: Orkut | Google: Outside US | Stats: comScore | Stats: General | Stats: Size | Top News

There are a couple of new search and display ad forecasts out from eMarketer. They run through next year with Google increasing its dominance of search advertising, while Facebook steals the top slot from Yahoo in display. The firm sees Google US search ad revenues opening up a bigger lead despite Bing's gains among consumers. However eMarketer says that Microsoft will pass Yahoo in terms of search revenues this year, with Bing controlling 8 percent and Yahoo 7.9 percent of paid-search revenues in 2011. In total eMarketer says that search revenues in the US will reach $14.4 billion t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: Size | Stats: Spend Projections

ComScore released its May 2011 search market share rankings this afternoon. The data essentially show no change from last month in terms of percentage distribution. Google gains a fraction of a point at Ask's expense, while everyone else stays put. While share was largely unchanged query volumes were up roughly 5 percent across the board in May. Google had 11.2 billion queries, according to comScore. That was followed by Yahoo with 2.7 billion and Microsoft with 2.4 billion. If we take Google's former statement that roughly 20 percent of PC search queries have a "local intent," [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Stats: comScore | Stats: Size

Practically every day some research firm somewhere in North America or Europe releases a forecast about how many widgets will be sold next year, or how large a given market is going to be in five years. And every day the overwhelming majority of those forecasts are poised to turn out wrong. In most cases forecasting market size or growth is an art form rather than a science. Assumptions drive the metrics behind the models. But we typically don't get to see the assumptions so clearly on display as we do in the recent IDC smartphone forecast (below). Some Safe and Risky Assumptions Across t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Stats: General | Stats: Size

Move over Yahoo, there's a new display advertising champion in town, as of the first quarter of 2011. You may have heard of the company, as they've also been dominating the search advertising category.  According to a new report from research firm IDC, Google's net U.S. display advertising revenue share grew to 14.7% in the first quarter of this year, from 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Yahoo!'s declined from 13.6% to 12.3%. Microsoft declined to a 6.5% market share in Q1 and Facebook rose in prominence with 8.8% of the market. The figures are interesting as we watch Google [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: Size

Russia's leading search engine Yandex formally filed for an IPO that has been expected for at least three years but was delayed by the global recession. The company plans to raise roughly $1 billion through its US Nasdaq offering. Founded in 1997, Yandex controls approximately 65 percent of the Russian search market and is valued at an estimated $6 billion to $9 billion. Google controls just over 20 percent of Russian search. Yandex also operates in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Yandex.com (the English language site) was launched in May of last year. The shares offered to the market w [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search Engines: Yandex | Stats: Size

Earlier this year Performics predicted that mobile search would soon reach 10 percent of all the search impressions its clients were seeing. Today the firm said that "mobile impressions accounted for 10.2 percent of all paid search impressions (desktop + mobile)." The company also said that mobile now represents 9.8 percent of paid clicks. It added that "Q1 YoY growth for mobile clicks outpaced impressions, increasing by 230 percent." That's compared with PC clicks, which grew only 13.7 percent during the same time period. However Performics said that mobile CTRs are somewhat b [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Marketing: Mobile | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size

There are a number of studies (e.g., Pew, Forrester) in the market that question how interested or engaged users are with "location based services." Those studies tend to narrowly focus on Foursquare, Gowalla and mobile check-ins. They tend to miss the larger point about the importance of location on mobile devices. A new study from AT&T Interactive and Nielsen, conducted this March, validates that location is a key part of the mobile-user experience. The study also reflects the often-superior performance of local-mobile ads. Restaurants the Top Local-Mobile Category AT&T VP S [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Stats: General | Stats: NetRatings | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size

Android has been outselling the iPhone for many months now, and it's widely assumed that Android has all but eclipsed Apple in the market and among developers for mindshare. However today comScore released a more "holistic" look at iOS vs. Android that includes iPod Touch and iPad owners, which contradicts that conventional wisdom. When all the iOS devices are combined (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch), Apple's reach is 59 percent greater than Android's in the US market. The metrics firm says there are a combined 37.9 million iOS users in the US. By contrast there are 23.8 million combined Andr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Android | Google: Mobile | Stats: comScore | Stats: Size

The IAB released its full year 2010 online advertising report this morning. Paid search constituted the largest category share of the $26 billion online ad spend, at 46 percent: Search was down a point vs. 2009 in terms of overall share. However it grew 12 percent vs. last year in terms of dollar value. By comparison display advertising (a catch-all category that includes video, sponsorships and all types of graphical ads) saw 24 percent growth over 2009. This year also marks the first time that the IAB and its partner PriceWaterhouseCoopers are estimating mobile ad revenues. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: General | Stats: Size | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News

To promote its Search Manager service (powered by Clickable) American Express has released small business (SMB) survey data about search and social media marketing. The survey was conducted this month and was a collaboration between Amex and SEMPO. The qualifier was that these small business respondents did some sort of online marketing. The sample size was 400. The definition of "small business" was not disclosed. It's no surprise that most SMBs need help with online marketing. Regarding search marketing in particular the biggest challenges discovered were "identifying the right keyword [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Web Search | SEM Industry: General | SEM Industry: Stats | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Size

Almost 5 percent of paid search spending in the US is now in mobile, according to a report released last week from banking and investment firm Macquarie Group, using Efficient Frontier data. That mobile search spend could double to almost 10 percent by the end of this year if growth continues at an aggressive pace. Using some very rough math that would mean US mobile paid search could be worth approximately $1.1 billion (at least) by the end of 2011. And almost all that money would be Google's. Just as Google dominates mobile search share in the US (with roughly 98 percent), [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Search Marketing: Mobile | Stats: General | Stats: Size | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News

Searches on Bing-powered engines grew 6.5% in the U.S. from December to January, climbing from 25.77% of total search volume to 27.44%. Google lost 2.5%, dropping from 69.67% to 67.95% of searches. This according to the latest Experian Hitwise Search Engine Analysis report, which looks at U.S. traffic. Bing.com saw the greatest increase in searches in the month, growing 21% over December, though overall volume was still relatively low at 12.81%. Bing-powered Yahoo actually saw a 4% dip in search volume, to 14.62% between December and January. Search success rate, or how often a search [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: Hitwise | Stats: Size

The IAB reported today that US online ad revenues were $6.4 billion in the third quarter of 2010. That compared with $6.2 billion in Q2 of 2010 and represented 17% growth over the same period a year ago. Through three quarters US online ad revenues totaled $18.1 billion. That would put online ad spending on track to hit almost $25 for the full year 2010 (assuming a good Q4). Google is on pace to reach about $30 billion in revenue globally this year. In the first half of 2010 search had a commanding 47 percent share of all online ad revenues. Display was next with 23 percent. Classifieds, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: General | Stats: Size | Stats: Spend Projections

It's a long-standing complaint of mine with Google. You can do a search, then repeat the same search and "subtract" a word from your original set, and Google will return more matches -- not less. It shouldn't happen. But does, and here's why. Subtracting Gives You More? Consider a search for cars, which reports that there are 546,000,000 pages that match that word: Now consider a search for cars -used, which should find all the pages that are relevant to the word cars (a set of 546 million) and then subtract any pages that have the word "used" on them. The figure should be less than 5 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Stats: Size | Top News

This morning the IAB announced online ad revenues for the first half of 2010. According to the report, revenues increased 11.3 percent vs. the same period a year ago. Second quarter ad revenues were $6.2 billion, a 4.1 percent increase over last year. Total 2010 ad revenues to date (through June) were $12.1 billion. Search continued to be the single largest category of online advertising, with 47 percent of all online revenues: Most categories, however, were unchanged from last year. It's worth noting that search is double the next largest category: static display. However, all di [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Search Ads: General | Stats: General | Stats: Size