Nielsen: Search Queries Up, Google Has 48% of All Searches, Ask Jeeves Soars in Search Volume

The MediaWeek article: Nielsen: Google Dominates, Local Grows, reports that new October, Nielsen//NetRatings ratings numbers have been released. Here are some highlights:

+ In October, Nielsen//NetRatings recorded 5.1 billion total search queries
That’s up 15% from June. As Mike Shields writes, search providers are, “going after an expanding search pie.”

+ Google accounted for nearly 2.5 billion searches in October, up 21 percent versus June activity.
That’s 48 percent share of all searches.

+ Yahoo, 22 percent of searches, up 16 percent in volume over the measured five month period

What provider had the biggest gain in overall search volume? Ask Jeeves, soon to be Ask.
From the article:

The search engine exhibiting the largest growth during the measuring period was AskJeeves, which saw its search queries soar by 77 percent, though Barry Diller’s Web asset still claims less than 3 percent of the market.

Categories:
+ Searching for photo-related material up 37% since June
+ Local search up 19% since June
+ General web searches exceeded 4.5 million queries

You can find more numbers and commentary in this Nielsen//NetRatings news release (PDF).

From the release:

The top four search players, Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL have maintained the same rankings in the
past five months with little to no change in market share. Ask Jeeves leapt into the top five spot, garnering
a 2.1 percent market share in August, edging out My Way Search, and has maintained its top five position
in subsequent months. In October, Ask Jeeves held a search market share of 2.6 percent.

Btw, the release also has info on MSN and AOL. Both companies are not mentioned in the MediaWeek article.

+ MSN, 11.3% of searches, up 8% in past five months.

+ AOL, 7.2% of searches, up 3% in past five months.