Google’s Search Lead Widens, Reaches 50%

A majority of all the Internet searches conducted in April were carried out through Google, Nielsen/NetRatings found in a report issued last week that might as well be a coronation.

This report, and another from ComScore that had Google at or near a majority, if anything suggest that Google’s Internet search market share lead may be insurmountable, in the near and distant future.

Consider that Google’s next-nearest search competitor, Yahoo Search, would have to more than double its traffic to catch up to Google, according to the Nielsen/NetRatings findings.

And that growth rate doesn’t factor in how Google continues to attract more Internet searchers each month than the month before. For instance, there were 600 million more queries at Google in April than there were a year before.

And Yahoo didn’t have such a bad April. The number of total searches grew by 22 percent in April, when compared to the same period in 2005. Yet, its No. 2 search engine market share for the month remained flat, while No. 3 search engine Microsoft MSN dipped slightly, Nielsen/NetRatings found.

From a search engine’s perspective, the name of the game is traffic. The more queries that take place, the better chance that someone will click on one of the ads that accompany the results. Each click generate a little more revenue.

By having the most traffic, Google is in the best position of all search engines, from a revenue-generating perspetive.

“Google has passed a signficant milestone,” said Michael Lanz, a Nielsen/NetRatings vice president.