According to this article, back in 2002, the market share of Yahoo, Google, and MSN was pretty much the same:
|
|
Market Share 2002 |
Market Share 2004 |
Market Share 2006 |
Market Share 2008 |
|
|
29.2% |
35% |
43.7% |
63.1% |
|
Yahoo! |
28.5% |
32% |
28.8% |
20.5% |
|
MSN/Live |
28.1% |
16% |
12.8% |
8.5% |
|
AOL |
19.7% |
9% |
5.9% |
3.7% |
|
Ask |
10.3% |
2% |
5.4% |
4.2% |
These days, things are a little different. MSN in Canada has recently launched a campaign which is aiming to get back some of the % of searches that they have lost to Google. They have launched a new website http://www.bigticketsearch.com/, which will give away prizes to individuals who do searches here. The idea is that the more you search, the more likely you will win.
Every time you enter in a search query, it shows you pictures of 2 tickets, and if they have matching pictures – you win whatever is in the picture (an Xbox, Season Tickets, $10,000 cash etc.)
They are promoting this extension of their search engine heavily with banner ads that show up when you log into Hotmail. This is probably a smart move on their part since their email service currently outranks everyone except Yahoo Mail (source: http://www.hitwise.com/datacenter/rankings.php – October 2008).
MSN started this promotion in Canada on October 31, 2008 and it will run until December 31, 2008.
MSN's new promotional search site
