Google users more loyal than rival sites’

Google users are more loyal than those of its biggest rivals, which may help to account for the search engine’s phenomenal success, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

Nearly one in three UK Google users (29 per cent) also searched via MSN Search in February, while 22 per cent of Google visitors also used Yahoo! Search according to the latest figures from Nielsen/NetRatings. By comparison, 70 per cent of MSN Search users and 67 per cent of Yahoo! Search users also searched using Google.

During February, 14.3 million UK consumers went to Google, while MSN Search had 5.9 million visitors and Yahoo! Search had 4.8 million. A total of 1.2 million UK consumers used all three search engines over the four-week period.

Google visitors ran an average of 9.11 searches and spent a total of 26 minutes 30 seconds on the site; MSN Search visitors ran 3.09 searches, totalling 4 minutes 7 seconds; and Yahoo! Search users ran an average of 4.2 searches, which took 9 minutes 7 seconds.

By comparison, Google in the US had 71 million visitors in January, 58 per cent of whom also used Yahoo!, MSN or both; Yahoo! had 46.8 million visitors, 71 per cent of whom also used one of the other “big three” search engines; of MSN Search’s 40.2 million visitors, 70 per cent used another big-three site.