comScore Introduces Significant Enhancements to Search Measurement With comScore qSearch 2.0
RESTON, Va., Aug 20, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ --
comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the launch of comScore qSearch 2.0, the second generation of search measurement. Previously, the search universe was defined as searches occurring at the major Web search engines. With search becoming a more ubiquitous activity across the Web, comScore is expanding the market view of the search universe to encompass other searches that occur on the Internet.
comScore's qSearch 2.0 interface will provide clients with an in-depth view of the search universe in the U.S. and worldwide that encompasses:
-- Core Search Engines -- the five major U.S. search engines (i.e. Google
Sites, Yahoo! Sites, Microsoft Sites, Ask Network and Time Warner
Network).
-- Top 50 properties worldwide where search activity is observed, which
includes sites such as MySpace, Baidu, and Naver.
-- Major "vertical" search locations -- such as eBay and Amazon in retail
and Expedia in travel.
-- Partner Search -- searches initiated at partner sites that redirect the
visitor to a search engine site.
-- Cross-Channel Search -- counts multiple searches when employing more
than one search tab (e.g. Web, images, news) for a single search term.
-- Local Search -- maps, directions, and local directory listings.
-- Worldwide Search -- includes comprehensive reporting of worldwide
search, with individual country reporting for the U.S., Canada, Mexico,
U.K., France, Germany, Japan, China, and Korea. Additional countries
will follow.
"With the continued evolution of the search market, it has become clear there is a need to expand the way we think about search," said James Lamberti, comScore senior vice president of search solutions. "qSearch 2.0 gives the most comprehensive and accurate view of the entire search market by including all forms of search that are being monetized currently or could be monetized in the future."
The comScore qSearch 2.0 service will now provide clients with the ability to discern whether the search originates from a text box on a search engine portal, an auto-search typed in the browser's URL line, a search from a text box on a downloaded search toolbar, local search, or a partner site. The expanded search universe will progressively add the ability to view search within a collection of vertical sites such as shopping, travel, or careers.
July U.S. Core Search Rankings
comScore will continue to publicly report a market share ranking for search engines known as "core search." These market share data will use a definition comparable to comScore's previous public search share reporting. As before, share will be determined using the five major search engines (Google Sites, Yahoo! Sites, Microsoft Sites, Ask Network and Time Warner Network) but will now include the partner searches and cross-channel searches in the total for each property. To keep this metric consistent with past reporting, searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines will not be included in the "core search" numbers.
In July, Google Sites ranked as the top core search engine with 55.2 percent share of searches among the top five engines. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 23.5 percent, followed by Microsoft Sites (12.3 percent), Ask Network (4.7 percent) and Time Warner Network (4.4 percent).
comScore Core Search Share Report
July 2007
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch 2.0
Share of Searches (%)
Point Chg
Jul-07 vs.
Core Search Entity Jul-06 Jun-07 Jul-07 Jun-07
Total Core Search 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% N/A
Google Sites 46.2% 54.9% 55.2% 0.3
Yahoo! Sites 29.8% 23.8% 23.5% -0.3
Microsoft Sites 12.4% 12.2% 12.3% 0.1
Ask Network 5.0% 4.6% 4.7% 0.1
Time Warner Network 6.6% 4.5% 4.4% -0.1
Google Sites led the market with nearly 5.5 billion search queries in July, up 2.4 percent versus June and 64 percent versus year ago, followed by Yahoo! Sites (up 0.8 percent to 2.3 billion searches), Microsoft Sites (up 2.8 percent to 1.2 billion), Ask Network (up 2.9 percent to 462 million), and Time Warner Network (down 0.9 percent to 436 million). Google benefits disproportionately from affiliate searches and multi-tab searches that help raise its share of core searches relative to the share reported in qSearch 1.0.
comScore Core Search Query Report
July 2007
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch 2.0
Search Queries (MM)
Percent Change
Jul-07 vs.
Core Search Engine Jul-06 Jun-07 Jul-07 Jun-07
Total Core Search 7,192 9,707 9,896 1.9%
Google Sites 3,322 5,330 5,459 2.4%
Yahoo! Sites 2,146 2,307 2,325 0.8%
Microsoft Sites 895 1,181 1,214 2.8%
Ask Network 357 449 462 2.9%
Time Warner Network 473 440 436 -0.9%
July U.S. Expanded Search Rankings
comScore will also publicly report the number of search queries conducted in the expanded search universe for the top 10 search properties. In July, Google Sites ranked as the top property in the expanded search universe with 6.6 billion searches, driven by Google (5.5 billion) and YouTube/All Other (1.1 billion). Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 2.5 billion, followed by Microsoft Sites (1.3 billion), Time Warner Network (959 million), and Fox Interactive Media (587 million).
comScore Expanded Search Query Report
July 2007
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch 2.0
Search Queries (MM)
Percent
Change
vs.
Prior
Jun-07 Jul-07 Month
Total Internet 13,388 13,692 2.3 %
Google Sites 6,385 6,614 3.6 %
Google 5,365 5,507 2.6 %
You Tube /
All Other 1,020 1,107 8.5 %
Yahoo! Sites 2,524 2,524 0.0 %
Yahoo 2,493 2,493 0.0 %
All Other 31 31 0.0 %
Microsoft Sites 1,223 1,251 2.3 %
MSN-Windows
Live 1,187 1,223 3.0 %
Microsoft/All Other 36 28 -22.2 %
Time Warner
Network 971 959 -1.2 %
AOL 438 436 -0.5 %
Mapquest/All
Other 533 523 -1.9 %
Fox Interactive
Media 562 587 4.4 %
MySpace 551 575 4.4 %
All Other 11 12 9.1 %
eBay 468 472 0.9 %
Ask Network 449 462 2.9 %
Ask.Com 219 214 -2.3 %
MyWebSearch.com /
All Other 230 248 7.8 %
CRAIGSLIST.ORG 170 185 8.8 %
Amazon Sites 144 151 4.9 %
Infospace Network 67 56 -16.4 %
"comScore is leading the way in measuring a search landscape heavily affected by Web 2.0," commented Dr. Magid Abraham, CEO and co-founder of comScore. "qSearch 2.0 adapts to the blurring of 'classic search' and enables clients and research analysts to evaluate the newly emerging players and the new types of searches that can potentially have significant monetization opportunities. This is an excellent example of comScore innovating to respond to the challenges of a fast moving marketplace".
For more information on comScore qSearch 2.0, please visit
http://www.comscore.com/contact
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore analysts apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by more than 700 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestle, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com
SOURCE comScore, Inc.
Sarah Radwanick of comScore, Inc., +1-312-775-6538, press@comscore.com
http://www.comscore.com
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