2.2 billion visits to search engines in January 2012
Visits to search engines up 174 million year-on-year
London, March 2012 – UK Internet users made 2.2 billion visits to search engines in February 2012, up by 174 million visits compared to February 2011. The increase in search activity represents an 8.7 per cent year-on-year increase. Google further increased its dominance within the UK search market in February as rival search engines bing and Yahoo! both lost market share.
In total, Google Sites accounted for 91.57 per cent of all searches conducted in the UK in February 2012, up by nearly one per cent from January 2012. Year-on-year Google also saw positive growth with a 0.89 per cent increase in market share of searches compared to February 2011.
Microsoft Sites led by bing were unable to build on their growth at the beginning of the year and instead their market share slipped by 0.48 per cent this month. Yahoo! Sites also decreased in market share by 0.39 per cent. Ask Sites maintained their market share in February and showed year-on-year growth of 0.37 per cent. Meanwhile, all other search engines monitored by Experian Hitwise lost market share both this month and in the year-on-year comparison.
James Murray, Market Research Analyst at Experian Hitwise commented: “There was a continuing growth trend in visits to search engines in February 2012, as people relied on search to navigate their way around the Internet. Compared to February 2011 we saw an additional 174 million visits to search engines in February 2012, an impressive 8.7 per cent growth year-on-year. Understanding how people are interacting with search engines, which keywords they are using and how successful those searches are, is becoming more critical than ever for companies to successfully market their brand online.”
