Ever wondered which Yahoo! service is the most popular, or if Google is just a one-trick pony? Hitwise UK recently released stats for the week ending 18 November 2006 highlighting the percentage of total number of visitors who visited various Google Properties and compared the numbers to the percentage of total visitors who visited various Yahoo! Properties.
Yahoo! Property | % Visits |
Google Property | % Visits |
|
---|---|---|---|---|
Yahoo! Europe Mail | 26.89% | Google UK | 66.38% | |
Yahoo! UK & Ireland | 19.98% | 17.61% | ||
Yahoo! Search – UK & Ireland | 12.60% | Google UK Image Search | 5.59% | |
Yahoo! | 8.98% | YouTube | 2.52% | |
Yahoo! Address Book | 7.50% | Google Mail | 1.40% | |
Yahoo! Mail | 7.47% | Google Desktop Search | 1.18% | |
Yahoo! Search | 3.35% | Google Maps | 0.85% | |
Kelkoo UK | 2.48% | Google Image Search | 0.66% | |
Yahoo! UK & Ireland News | 2.08% | Google News UK | 0.55% | |
Yahoo! Geocities | 1.55% | Google UK Maps | 0.46% | |
Yahoo! Groups | 1.49% | Blogger | 0.42% | |
Yahoo! Downloads | 1.26% | Froogle UK | 0.36% | |
Flickr | 1.04% | Google Scholar | 0.33% | |
www.yahoo.com other traffic | 0.96% | Google Video | 0.30% | |
Yahoo! UK & Ireland Finance | 0.92% | Google Toolbar | 0.29% | |
My Yahoo! UK & Ireland | 0.80% | Google Video UK | 0.27% | |
Yahoo! UK & Ireland Games | 0.72% | Google Pack | 0.25% | |
Yahoo! Member Directory | 0.69% | Google UK Groups | 0.20% | |
Yahoo! Music | 0.66% | Google Co-op | 0.20% | |
Yahoo! UK & Ireland Messenger | 0.60% | Google Earth | 0.18% | |
Source Hitewise UK week to 18th November 2006 |
Evidently, the vast majority of Google visitors use the site for the regular search service, whereas Yahoo!’s visitors seem to use Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Search as well as the Yahoo! information portal, presenting a more balanced distribution.
Google’s over-dependence on search is a weakness that Google recognizes and has tried to rectify, rather unsuccessfully, in the past. MSN and Yahoo! remain more popular destinations overall due to the popularity of their non-search-related services such as Hotmail and Messenger.
As the race for Internet supremacy heats up, the battle seems to be shifting away from the browser, towards the desktop and mobile space. The metrics displayed here might give an indication towards how the market could change in the future.