Google monopolise UK search market.

10/06/2008

Data released today shows Google search was responsible for 87 per cent of all internet searches in the UK during May.

The statistics, from Hitwise, show a nine per cent year on year increase for the search heavyweight.

The closest competitor, Yahoo!, limped home with 4.09 per cent of searches, whereas Microsoft's MSN and Ask got less than four per cent each.

Yahoo!, MSN and Ask also showed an increase in traffic between April and May but have a long way to go to catch up with Google.

Microsoft were recently linked with a move to acquire Yahoo! in the hope of breaking Google's stranglehold on the search engine market, although a price tag of $49.5 billion may prove prohibitive.

On February 1st, Microsoft launched an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! worth $31 billion but the offer fell well short of Yahoo!'s asking price.

In the latest twist, Yahoo! is now looking into the possibility of an ad outsourcing deal with Google.