Check out this graph by Hitwise based on a sample of 10 million U.S. based Internet users. In 12 months Google gained 7,21% of search traffic. The other search engines lost a combined (Yahoo -3,91%, MSN -2,02%, Ask -1,23%) 7,16% which means that Google is growing faster than other search engines are shrinking.
So how big will Google get? If they keep growing like this they will reach 100% market share within 4 years. Will that happen? Or can we expect Google to make a strategic investment in Yahoo & Ask just to keep the competition alive and avoid becoming a monopoly.
That seems unlikely but it is what Microsoft did in 1997 by investing $150 million into Apple. Or will Google be the Altavista of this century and will we see an alternative search solution take its place? I think we all agree that Google advertising business is too big and mighty to be easily replaced. But search? How hard could it be to come up with a better solution?
Found at Hitwise via AltSearchEngines.
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