comScore qSearch ™ The Search Landscape Industry Highlights & Trends For SES

Measuring the Internet Age™

comScore qSearchcomScore qSearch™™The Search LandscapeThe Search Landscape

Industry Highlights & Trends For SESIndustry Highlights & Trends For SES

James Lamberti

Senior Vice President, comScore Networks

August 2006

proprietary and confidential 2

comScore Methodology – “Large, Representative, Panel”

2 million online consumers who have agreed to be continuously and passively observed

Proprietary technology collects all Internet activity including search, ecommerce, and more

Key advantages of our approach

Capture actual consumer searches

Totally passive methodology

Multiple search metrics for in-depth analysis• Searchers

• Distinct searches

• Keywords and Clicks

• Ad Impressions

comScore Panelist

comScore Servers

World Wide Web

Passive tracking of actual consumer search activity


comScore qSearch™ Data SourcesHundreds of clients rely on our data including all major search engines

qSearch™ Audience Measurement: Market & Share Tracking• U.S., England, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Spain, and Worldwide

• U.S. segment of Home, Work, and College/University

• Tracking since January 2003

qSearch™ Local Search Audience Measurement• IYP and Local Web Search since January 2004

qSearch™ Monetization and Click-Rate Reporting• Ad Coverage, Algorithmic and Sponsored Click-thru rates since January 2004

qSearch Customer Satisfaction Tracking• Surveyed attitudes linked to actual behavior since Q2 2004

qSearch™ Custom Analysis• Search link to eCommerce

• Heavy/Medium/Light Searcher Analysis

• Searcher Loyalty Analysis


The U.S. Search Market Passes the 6 Billion Mark

Source: comScore qSearch Total US Internet Users

Expected seasonal declines as we head into Summer Query growth up 12.3% Q2 ’06 vs. Q1 ’06 after the May peak of 6.8 Billion

5.1 5.2 5.0 4.8 5.0 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.2 5.5 5.8 6.4 6.6 6.8 6.4

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Total Searches

June down 6% vs. May

June down 6% vs. May


Q1 Surge in Intensity is Driving Recent Growth

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Unique Searchers Searches per Searcher

Source: comScore qSearchTotal US Internet Users

2005 Broadband Adoption Drove Searcher Penetration Increases Through April 2006 This New Bandwidth is Now Driving Increases in Intensity

January 2006 intensity increases are fueling recent growth

January 2006 intensity increases are fueling recent growth


Search Relies on the Heavy User Segment

Source: comScore qSearchTotal US Internet UsersSearch segments were first measured in July 2005

Total Searches by Type of Searcher

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Medium Searchers (30%) Light Searchers (50%) Heavy Searchers (20%)

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The top 20% of the market drives the majority of activity Heavies are 3x more active than medium and 15x more active than light

Average number of Searches per Searcher in June 2006

Average number of Searches per Searcher in June 2006


Year-over-Year Growth Rates Rebounding as a Result

Year-Over-Year % Change in Searches

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Google Sites Yahoo! Sites MSN-Microsoft Sites


All major engines are growing Softness in Q4 an indication of emerging seasonality

* Due to a definitional change occurring in June 2006 which resulted in an NEDOM-DNS error, trended data for the Time-Warner Network are not available

*


Share of Searches

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Google Sites Yahoo! Sites MSN-Microsoft Sites Time Warner Network Ask Network

Source: comScore qSearchTotal US Internet Searches

Google’s Share Trending Up for 11th Consecutive Month

All players lost ground to Google; Yahoo! is generally flat over recent 4 months Will Ask become the 4th largest engine in 2007?

44.7%

28.5%

5.6%

12.8%

5.1%

June 2006 Market SharesJune 2006 Market Shares


All Major Engines Show Significant Penetration

Searcher Penetration

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62.9%

52.4%

21.9

34.8

20.8

June 2006 penetration June 2006 penetration

Significant penetration provides an opportunity for all engines to gain share


Intensity Drives the Existing Share Gaps

Google is averaging 29.4 searches per searcher; Ask is 9.6 Searcher intensity ranking mirrors overall share positions closely

Searches per Searcher

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Sponsored Ad Coverage Generally on the Rise

Sponsored Ad Coverage

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Google Web Search Yahoo! Web Search MSN Web Search

Sponsored search coverage now ranging from 60-76% for all engines


MSN is the highest with 76% coverage

in June

MSN is the highest with 76% coverage

in June


Sponsored Clicks Responding to Ad Coverage

Sponsored clicks up 38% in June ‘06 vs. year ago compared to 29% for algo

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Algorithmic Sponsored Column 3

Year-over-year growth is 38%Year-over-year growth is 38%


Total Sponsored Clicks by Engine

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Google.com/Google Yahoo! Search MSN Search AOL Ask.com

Sponsored Clicks Increasing For All Engines

These data are a much better indication of financial performance than queries


June 2006 Sponsored Clicks June 2006 Sponsored Clicks


Web Search Remains the Dominant Consumer Activity

Source: comScore qSearch

News and Image growth is strongest, but it remains a small fraction of total activity Local/IYP Search growth lags the overall market despite product development efforts

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Percentages represent year-over-year growth

Percentages represent year-over-year growth

Vertical Searches and Total Searches Growth (May 2006 over May 2005*)

610285

811685

5,276

4,075

7,132

5,423

2005 2006

News & Image Search Local/IYP Search Web Searches Total Searches

MayMay

114%18%

29%

32%


Total Toolbar Searches

Toolbar Searches

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Toolbar searches were at an all-time high in May on both an absolute and share-of-total basis


850 Million Searches in June

850 Million Searches in June


Yahoo! and Google penetration gap continues to narrow

Toolbar Searcher Penetration

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Yahoo! and Google Maintain Toolbar Leadership


56.8%

46.5%

Penetration in June 2006

Penetration in June 2006

5.9%


Local Share of Searches

After several months of consistent shares, Google outpaces Yahoo! by about 25 million searches in May ‘06

Source: comScore qSearch, Local/IYP ReportTotal US Internet Users

31.2%

28.1%

12.1%

6.4%

2.4%

Local Search Shares

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Google Sites Yahoo! Sites MSN-Microsoft Sites Time Warner Netw ork Ask Netw ork

Local Shares in May 2006

Local Shares in May 2006

*


What Metric?• Distinct Searches

• Result Pages

• Clicks/Referrals

What Population?• U.S. only

• Worldwide at .com locations

• Local shares in Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain

What Location?• Search Ad networks

• Total portal activity

• Search property only activity

What is Engine X’s Market Share? It depends…


Thank YouThank You

Documents

comScore qSearch ™ The Search Landscape Industry Highlights & Trends For SES