There’s a reason why Google dominates the arena. Users are generally satisfied with the results they get, and see no reason to switch engines. That is why Microsoft has its work cut out for it with making Bing a true competitor.

"Google is unquestionably king of search, so the only competition is for second place," says Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, who released the ACSI along with the University of Michigan. "The research was done before Bing entered the market, so we don’t know what effect its entry will have. But Google’s customers are pretty happy and have little reason to try something new, so Bing has a real uphill battle ahead."

Google got an 86 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale for the second year in a row. That’s 9 points higher than Yahoo, Google’s nearest competitor. AOL has reason to be happy though, because it is the only one in the search engines and portals category whose numbers actually went up. Everyone else stayed the same, but AOL gained 1% to reach a score of 70.

According to the index, the eBusiness sector is up on the ACSI by 2.8%, which is an all-time high for the category. It scored an 81.5.

Newspapers

The online news and information industry didn’t do quite as well, decreasing by 1.3% to a score of 74. USAToday.com was the only site in the category to go up, while ABCNews.com reached an all-time low, dropping by 5% to a 71.

"With a number of major newspapers shifting operations online, it’s surprising that news and information websites have not seized the opportunity to provide customers with the quality of news they’ve come to expect," says Freed. "Online customer satisfaction has a proven impact on reader loyalty and therefore on advertising revenues, and the battered industry needs any help it can get."

Apple won in the personal computers category, which really isn’t all that shocking either.

Apple posted its largest gain in the index to date, jumping to 85, which also happens to be the all-time high for the whole personal computer industry category (the company came in at 79 last year). Dell, the closest runner-up came in considerably lower at 74.

"It’s hard not to be impressed with Apple," says Professor Claes Fornell, producer of the ACSI at the University of Michigan. "This is product extension at its best where the new products, iPod and iPhone, are helping bring new customers to existing computer products. The fact that Apple is not dependent on the Windows Vista operating system hasn’t hurt either."

There’s definitely something to that. Dissatisfaction seems to have radiated from Microsoft ever since Vista was introduced. Why else would so many people still be using XP?

Even people that were using Vista are migrating back to XP. I’m afraid Microsoft is going to have to correct some major issues with the next incarnation of its operating system if it doesn’t want to continue to lose customers to Apple.

Insert obligatory Linux endorsement.

The ACSI isn’t exactly the final word in a company’s success, but Apple has to be pleased with the results nevertheless. Microsoft is probably not so thrilled. They came in just under "all others" in the Internet Portals/Search Engines category.

Released last week by the University of Michigan, the American Customer Satisfaction Index e-business survey details the satisfaction level of consumers across a category that covers search engines, online news, e-commerce and portals, based on the feedback of 70,000 customers.

Yahoo! gained 3 points on their 2006 score to take the top spot in the category with a rating of 79 out of 100. Considering the turmoil that Yahoo! has faced over the past few months, both shareholders and Yahoo! execs will be hoping this accolade marks a change of fortune.

For Google, a 3 point drop to 78 represents the lowest ACSI score they’ve received since the survey started in 2000. Their declining rating echoes an ever growing chorus of discontent from their devoted users. Not expect panic at the Googleplex, as they still stand well above many of their competitors.

Ask.com had a stellar result with a 4 point increase to 75 this year. This is a remarkable effort considering the survey was conducted before the much applauded launch of Ask3D, and even better given that the whole category experienced an overall decline of 1.3 points – the first decline in the category so far.

AOL was the biggest loser this year shedding a remarkable 7 points. With AOL trailing Google in search, Yahoo! in the portal stakes and struggling on many other fronts, there’ll be some serious discussions in the AOL board room.

The ACSI survey highlights that while customer satisfaction is relatively strong in the category, the big industry players run the risk of losing favor if they don’t continue to listen to their users and maintain a customer-centric approach to privacy, development and innovation.

Comments

Granted, “ever” isn’t a particularly long time for these companies or this report – as bigmouthmedia notes, the ACSI has only been around since 2002.  And Google wasn’t exactly walloped – with a rating of 78, it was just barely edged out by Yahoo’s 79.  Still, some of the survey’s other findings indicate that a critical point has been reached.

“Even more important than Yahoo’s first lead over Google is the trend of their scores moving in opposite directions,” stated Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results (the sponsor of the ACSI report).  Yahoo’s score rose by nearly four percent in the past year, while Google’s decreased by about the same amount.

“Since the ACSI is a leading indicator of financial performance on the macro scale and at the company level, we may see a real turnaround for Yahoo! in the next year,” Freed continued.

A similar prediction might apply to Ask, considering that its four-point increase qualifies as the year’s biggest.  “Ask.com is making huge inroads on the other competitors in the portal and search engine category,” said Freed. “And it has done this despite a second relaunch this year, which was apparently carried off so well that it didn’t have the usual backlash of dropping customer satisfaction scores.  Ask.com has mastered the crucial mix of evolution and revolution.”

And Google has apparently gotten the hang of goofing up the ACSI survey.