Google’s share of UK search market dips below 90%
Google, which has long enjoyed a near monopoly of the UK search market, has suffered a rare setback after its share of the market dipped below the psychologically important 90% mark.
According to Experian Hitwise as of October the firm accounted for 89.33% of all searches undertaken from within the UK, the first time in five years that it has dipped below 90%.
Google is facing increased competition from the likes of Microsoft, Yahoo! Ask and others which have all increased thir share, notably Microsoft which now accounts for 4.71% of all searches, although this may have been boosted by the recent Windows 8 launch.
In a statement Experian said: “Clearly, Google still maintains a huge competitive edge over the other search engines in the UK market. There are 18 times more searches conducted on Google Sites than on all the other search engines combined. However, this is encouraging news for Microsoft as bing once again starts to gain some momentum and traction in the UK search market.“