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Google tops search, faces local challenges
12-10-2007
by Ciara O'Brien

Google may be top of search charts worldwide, but local search engines are creeping in to the mix.

According to internet market research firm comScore, 60 percent of the 61 billion searches carried out around the world were filtered through Google in August -- that translates into a whopping 37 billion queries.

Yahoo slid into second place with 8.5 billion searches, but Chinese language search engine Baidu came in just ahead of Microsoft with 3.3 billion to the US tech giant's 2.2 billion. Korean firm NHN completed the top five with 2 billion searches. It's bad news for Microsoft, which is trying to challenge Yahoo and Google in the search stakes.

"Seeing Asian search engines like China's Baidu.com and Korea's NHN ranked alongside Google and Yahoo underscores the fact that search has become a truly global phenomenon. The continued development of search in international markets will undoubtedly present compelling opportunities for savvy marketers on a global scale," said Bob Ivins, executive vice president of International Markets at comScore.

The growth of the Asian search engines is indicative of the region's growing influence in the market. The Asia-Pacific region saw 20.3 billion searches performed by 258 million users, eclipsing Europe's 210 million users and 18 billion searches. In North America, only 206 million users carried out 16 billion searches. The Middle East and Africa were trailing the rest of the world, with a mere 30 million people conducting 2 billion searches.