Keynote Says Google’s Lead Shrinking

Yesterday Keynote Systems (formerly Vividence Corporation) released the results of a consumer survey that reported Yahoo!, MSN and Ask Jeeves making gains in search market share and user perceptions.

The survey, based on observation and interaction with 2,000 consumers, found that Google continues to be the dominant engine, but perceptions of quality have tightened.

Keynote Customer Experience Rankings:

1. Google
2. Yahoo Search
3. MSN Search
4. Ask Jeeves
5. Lycos

Keynote analysis of Yahoo! gains on Google attributed that in part to Yahoo!??s aggressive local search push. However, the survey reported that users felt the general quality of local search results were poor. ??The quality of local search results is a major frustration to many search engine users. Across all search sites, almost one in four (22%) users complain that the local results are not what they are looking for or are not ranked appropriately.?

TKG??s research with BizRate (3,887 online consumers), conducted in August 2004, reflected generally improving customer satisfaction with local search.

Compared to one year ago the relevance/completeness of local information available online has:

1. Improved somewhat: 49.8%
2. Improved significantly: 24.5%
3. Stayed the same: 23.3%
4. Declined somewhat: 1.8%
5. Declined significantly: .4%

Nonetheless, there is considerable room for improvement in the local space. Obviously, nobody owns local search. But the competition continues to increase.