For a long time now Google has been the number one search engine in the US, but 2008 saw it spending a whole year covering around 65% percent of the market.
Last month, however, Google jumped from 65.9% up to 72.1% according to a recent report by Hitwise. The jump could be Google clearing the last few hurdles as it jumps towards a complete monopoly of the search engine marketplace.
According to the Hitwise report, all of the other search engines have seen their market share fall in the last 12 months with the deserters it seems moving to Google. Yahoo dropped from 20.9% to 17.8%, while Microsoft and Ask dropped 7% and 4% respectively.
With Google dominating the search market, more and more businesses will increase their AdWords spend in an effort to reach customers. With customers regularly moving over to Google, the AdWords marketplace will become even more crowded, increasing the cost of advertising on Google.
The big question remains on whether any of the search engines have a chance to at least compete with Google. 2008 was an exciting year for search with the launch of several new engines, and the near merger of Google and Yahoo and 2009 looks likely to be just as exciting.
January 13, 2009
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