September 2008 Real Search Market Share per Quantcast

SEO digest

Disclaimer: SEO Theory is not associated with Quantcast.com and the SEO Theory real search market share report is an estimate based on data provided by Quantcast.com for free through its Web site. Quantcast.com has not endorsed this report. These traffic estimates may not represent actual unique visitor data.

Real search market share is measured in terms of estimated unique visitors rather than number of queries performed. Because of automated rank-checking tools (and manual rank checking), Google’s estimated search market share based on queries performed is heavily inflated and therefore an unreliable indicator of potential search traffic.

The following tables are based on Quantcast’s estimated unique U.S. visitors for the selected domains. The Algorithmic Search Market Share includes only services for which Quantcast estimates at least 100,000 monthly visitors. Gigablast and Exalead have yet to qualify for inclusion in the report. Hakia, which was included in the June, July, and August reports, has been dropped for failing to meet the 100,000 minimum visitor requirement.

The data for Snap is impressive. Compete has also been recording substantial gains in estimated monthly traffic for Snap. It is remarkable that the search engine marketing industry has paid virtually no attention to Snap. Snap’s traffic estimates, however, may be significantly influenced by their Snap Shots tm service for Webmasters. If that is the case, then Snap’s search traffic may be significantly lower than its widget referral traffic. Snap’s position in the search market requires further study and analysis.

Percentage market share for September reflects overall increases in estimated visitors to search services. Hence, the percentages may seem to be declining when in fact many of the services are increasing their reported traffic. Microsoft’s estimated visits, for example, have grown — as have Ask’s. Google’s estimated visitors, however, continues to decline — a trend that began in the Spring according to estimates currently visible on Alexa, Compete, and Quantcast.

Search.com and Alexa both received an equal number of estimated visitors. They have accordingly been ranked the same: 14th position.

The report is divided into three tables: Algorithmic Search, Directory Search, and Blog Search. The Algorithmic search report reflects more than 416 million combined estimated visitors. It is not possible to determine from the data Quantcast publishes how many visitors the search services share.

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published @ October 10, 2008

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