Despite Search Growth For AOL & ASK, They're Still Not Playing In The Majors

According to new data from Nielsen//NetRatings, the number of searches handled by AOL and Ask Jeeves showed double-digit growth. However, they're still not competing with the major players. The data is as follows:

Though Ask showed an excellent growth rate of 16%, their actual search numbers are miniscule compared to Google. Further, Ask searches increased by 34 million between the first and second quarters, though Google's increased by 351 million. Nevertheless, Ask finds the numbers significant given their comparatively small amount of traffic.

The most recent monthly share figures for June 2005 were also released by NetRatings. These represent the each service's percentage of all searches performed by home and work users in the US:

There are two things particularly interesting about these numbers. First, MSN reached its lowest level since the start of this year despite all the attention given to searches. Second, My Way appears on the June 2005 chart but not the quarterly one. This could simply be because My Way is owned by Ask Jeeves and thus their numbers may be combined, though My Way traffic is normally not counted as part of Ask Jeeves.

NetRatings speculates that the quarterly growth is driven by vertical search and provides the following breakdown:

However, some think that, while the vertical searches may be important, suggesting that they're the main force behind the overall search growth may not be accurate. For instance, 17% of Google's new queries were powered by image search growth and MSN had an increase in image search but an overall decrease in searches.