Google plunges 7% (6 points) but continues to lead the portals and search engines industry with a score of 80. It is just the second time that Google cedes its top spot, as the “all others” category of search engine competitors jumps 5% to 82. Microsoft’s Bing search engine makes a strong first showing with a score of 77, trailed by Yahoo! (76), AOL (74), and Ask.com (73).
An interesting comment from Larry Freed, CEO of ForSee Results, corporate sponsor for the e-commerce and e-business measurements and it's something we've thought about quite a lot when it comes to Google both in terms of the short but more in the long term. Can one company do it all and do it all well?
Google may be suffering from trying to be too many things to too many people, but it still has the most loyal following with 80% of its users citing Google as their primary search engine,” said Freed. “That said, Bing’s first measure is impressive and could put some pressure on Google. The new search engine [Bing] is already making gains in market share and using clever marketing and advertising to distinguish itself from the market leader.
An excellent report on both the search and social results especially on what the ASCI actually tells us and doesn't tell us, Greg Sterling's post at Search Engine Land is a must read.
Of course, with all of that said, Google still topped the ASCI list and their market share versus all others is still very large.
Sterling concludes:
Consumers expect a great deal from Google and they probably expect relatively little by comparison from the individual sites and engines in the “all others” category [sites like Dogpile, GoodSearch, MyPoints, and Swagbucks.] Those same expectations confront Google’s main competitors, which it outscored. So even though Bing did well Google still beat it.
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The ACSI scores may thus say more about the overall state of consumer expectations toward search than they do about any site in particular.
While consumers may expect "a great deal from Google" we wonder how the others (particularly Bing) demonstrate to consumer searchers that their expectations could be potentially be met by their service. How do you get users to see if their expectations are right or wrong if they never use the product? Plus, while we can say it until will blue in the face (one single search means little), a search engine has to get it right the first time or it's probable the users expectations will be reinforced. If the product IS better than they expected does that mean they will come back? Is the same true for specialty databases and library resources?
Btw, both metasearch engines Dogpile and MyPoints mentioned in the paragraph above contain some results from Google.
Facebook may be the most popular Web site in America, but its customer satisfaction score is in the dumps. In fact, Facebook’s customer satisfaction rating is below IRS e-file and in the same ballpark as airlines and cable companies, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
The ACSI gives Facebook a score of 64 on a 100 point scale. That tally puts Facebook in the bottom 5 percent of all measured private sector companies. For context, Facebook is right down there with airlines and cable companies, two sectors with an average score of 66. At least Facebook isn’t alone. MySpace had a score of 63.
Note: "The ACSI didn’t measure Twitter—largely because the service is often accessed through third party apps..."
Among social websites, Wikipedia led the survey with a 77, followed by YouTube at 73. Historically, performance in the Index has tracked fairly closely to a company’s earnings and stock returns relative to competitors.
“When you think about Facebook three years ago versus now, it has a much more diverse audience than it did before. In my family, my 12-year-old son is on it, as is my 75-year-old mother – that’s three generations on Facebook with varying levels of tech savvyness,” said Freed. “Facebook has to learn how to deal with consumers across a broad range as they make changes.”
---Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results - Sponsor of the Survey
Freed also says that privacy is an issue for Facebook but changes to the interface, the technology that controls news feeds, and spam scored higher.
Top 5 (Social Media)
Average Score....70
Wikipedia...........77
YouTube............73
All Others..........72
Facebook...........64
MySpace............63
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