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Google Sees Biggest Search Traffic Drop Since 2009 As Yahoo Gains Ground

Posted by Soulskill on from the and-we're-back dept.

helix2301 writes: Google's grip on the Internet search market loosened in December, as the search engine saw its largest drop since 2009. That loss was Yahoo's gain, as the Marissa Mayer-helmed company added almost 2% from November to December to bring its market share back into double digits. Google's lead remains overwhelming, with just more than three-quarters of search, according to SatCounter Global Stats. Microsoft's Bing gained some momentum to take 12.5% of the market. Yahoo now has 10.4%. All other search engines combined to take 1.9%.

5 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Thank the Mozilla Foundation by DrunkenTerror · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thank you Mozilla!

    1. Re:Thank the Mozilla Foundation by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Thank them? They changed the default search provider on all my existing Firefox profiles without my permission during the last update. I have about twelve different Firefox profiles for different things (-no-remote is your friend) and I was quite annoyed to have to change it back to my preferred setting on every single one of them. I don't begrudge them for the search deal, it was bound to happen with Google pushing Chrome so heavily, but leave the existing people alone, mmm'kay?

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  2. Duck Duck Go by Snotnose · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I switched to ddg a year or two back because I thought google had too much information on me. Maybe 2-3 times a week I need to revert to a google search, but ddg is fine for 99% of my searches.

  3. Google Now by Phil+Urich · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Google is actually trying to do exactly this with Google Now; predictively presenting you with information you'd otherwise be searching for is simple yet fairly innovative, arguably, and they're positioning it as the next advance in search. One might argue about the philosophy or practicality of that, but they are at least explicitly trying to completely remake what a search engine/page is.

    It's certainly noticed that I go up to my local university campus in the afternoon on a specific day every week (although it doesn't know why...yet) and when I pop open the Search app it already shows at the top result, before I even have the chance to enter a search for bus and train schedules, a set of routes and times for transit up to campus. There as sense in which that's all just an obvious outgrowth of networked data, so perhaps calling it "extra-ordinarily innovative" is a stretch, but it's definitely something new for a search engine, and at least for me (again, your mileage may vary, especially vis-a-vis privacy concerns) is very convenient.

    --
    I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
  4. If you had selected something... by jopsen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    leave the existing people alone, mmm'kay?

    If you had chosen a search engine it would have... Only the default changed.
    IMO, I don't see a way to do this painlessly...

    Either way, I've actually started using yahoo in Firefox, and barely notice the difference.