In addition, I’ll be doing a class on advanced Visitor Segmentation in Visual Science. That’s obviously a deep-dive class – and it should be a lot of fun.

I’ve really enjoyed DMU classes in the past – they’re great opportunity all the way around. With everyone having a computer and direct access to the tool, it’s a much better educational experience that just listening to someone talk to Powerpoint slides or screen shots.

I’ve always believed that web analytics is a craft – and like any craft it’s best learned hands-on. As an extra bonus, of course, the DMU is in San Diego. I, like just about everyone else, love San Diego.

You can review all the courses and get more information on the WSS website.

See you there!

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About the Author

Gary Angel is the author of the "SEMAngel blog – Web Analytics and Search Engine Marketing practices and perspectives from a 10-year experienced guru.

From my experiences in implementing web analytics there sometimes have been difficulties implementing web analytics on a website powered by a CMS, so I was very intrigued with the idea of having a CMS system with Analytics built write in.

Some key benefits include:

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Manoj has been working in the search engine marketing industry since 2002. He started out as a software developer but now provides in-depth web site analysis using web analytics.

http://www.enquiro.com

Manoj is also the author of Web Analytics World. Web Analytics is an essential component in developing a successful
online campaign. Help convert visitors into customers by understanding
them.

WebSideStory collected searcher data for the month of February 2006 and found that Google referred an average of 74.67 percent of all U.K. visitors to other sites on the Web.

Yahoo! commanded just 9.3 percent as Google’s nearest competitor. Google search percentage in the U.K. exceeds both the U.S. average (55.39 percent), and the global average (62.4 percent).

“Even more so in the U.K. than in the U.S., when people think of search, they think of Google,” said Rand Schulman, Chief Marketing Officer for WebSideStory.

“This has large implications for U.K. marketers, whose search engine marketing and optimization strategies should be Google-centric.”

The U.K. top five search engines are the same as the U.S. with a bit of a smaller share of the market. After Yahoo!, MSN referred 5.46 percent, AOL 4.21 percent, and Ask Jeeves 2.28 percent.

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For instance, with the official launch of Google Earth coming late last night/early this morning, Google put themselves at the center of the Internet’s attention, and just in time for the accolades to come pouring in, apparently.

Google’s latest batch of good fortune actually started earlier in the day when it was announced that their stock prices had eclipsed the $300 mark at the close of business yesterday. GOOG stock is currently at $306.91 a share and climbing. Then came the highly anticipated launch of Google Earth, which does not disappoint and it’s actually free.

Now comes news stemming from a WebSideStory study that has Google solidifying its position as the number one search engine referrer, while MSN and Yahoo continue to lose ground. According to WebSideStory’s study, Google is still the top search referrer presence, but now they’ve also garnered over 50 percent of the search referral traffic, giving Google an all-time high of 52.2 percent.

Not only does Google provide over half of the search engine traffic, their percentage of referrals more than doubles the amount of the closest competitor, which goes to Yahoo’s search engine with 25.2 percent. The third position went to MSN Search, who is only responsible for 10.37 percent of the search engine traffic received.

Apparently, German residents love Google as well. WebSideStory indicates over 90 percent of the country’s search engine referrals originate from Google. Japan is one of the only countries measured during the study that did not have Google in top position when it comes to referring search engine traffic.

The study also reveals Google’s breaking of the 50 percent barrier concludes a four-year rise of astronomical proportions.

Jeff Lunsford, CEO of WebSideStory, offered his thoughts about his company’s study:

“WebSideStory tracks multiple online visitor acquisition sources for more than 700 businesses, including some of the biggest brands in the world. Google has become a staple for any serious online marketing operation and this data shows why: They generate more than half of all online search referrals in the U.S. and as much as 90 percent in other countries. Google’s early decision to focus on quality of search results has clearly paid off.”

The numbers provided by WebSideStory’s survey reveal just how tight Google’s grip on the search engine industry is. And if they are any indication of the future, it certainly appears as if it will only increase. When you apply WSW’s data to Steve Ballmer’s boasts about MSN Search catching Google, relevancy-wise, in 6 months, it makes you wonder if anyone is actually going to be there to notice whether or not MSN is true to their word.

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.

But first, a little recap:

Beginning with Google Earth and going backwards, the search engine introduced the aforementioned Google Earth, a thorough satellite image index of the entire planet for free; been confirmed as the dominant search engine when it comes to traffic generation; awarded “the most visited search engine by US traffic” label from Hitwise

Had their stock break the $300-a-share price barrier; launched a very competitive, browser-based, open source, free video player that some feel may threaten the likes of Microsoft; and last but not least, had information about an online payment system that some felt would challenge PayPal come out.

And this is all in about a week’s time. What’s next on the agenda?

When you look at the numbers of the two reports (Hitwise and WebSideStory), it is quite apparent Google has a firm grip on the search engine industry, and it doesn’t appear to be loosening anytime soon. However, Danny Sullivan points out these numbers may not be as impressive as they seem.

Danny feels the WebSide study illustrates why we shouldn’t get too excited over monthly fluctuations and that these new numbers indicate a level of consistency and not a great deal of change amongst the rankings of the search engines, in a traffic producing sense.

However, the traffic referral numbers do illustrate that Google has a worldwide rate of 52 percent (thanks in great deal to the 90 percent mark turned in by German Internet users) and that 38% of US Internet users use Google to search; although, even these numbers showed less than a 1 percent cumulative change, which also substantiates Danny’s line of thinking.

When reviewing these numbers, something does become clear: Google has quite a grip on the amount of traffic it sends to web sites. Having a worldwide percentage of 52% and the next ranked engine (Yahoo) receives less than half that amount (25.5%) illustrates this quite clearly.

If you take these numbers and couple them with the utilities and features being introduced on what seems like a daily basis by Google, not to mention the impressive performance of their stock, it certainly seems as if Google is in a position not many can match. However, the question becomes: is this a stable position Google is perched on, or is it uneven ground that will facilitate change? Considering the nature of technology, the latter becomes more likely than former.

However, this certainly doesn’t suggest that Google is without chinks in their amour. On going PPC click-fraud issues continue to pester their advertising service. Perhaps this is why Google is considering CPM (cost-per-thousand-impressions) bidding as an alternative. Issues with Google AutoLink, Google Print, and their moderately perplexing video search service need to be ironed out.

Of course, the numbers from the two studies do not dissuade the competition either. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was not shy in speculating about the success of MSN Search’s new relevancy algorithm. Ballmer feels Microsoft will catch Google, relevancy-wise, within 6 months. However, thoughts from Andy Beal probably sum up the effect this will have:

Relevancy is dead. All of the top search engines are relevant! What matters now is convincing users that your experience is better than your competitor’s.

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.

Because of the Windows OS, fighting Microsoft’s Internet Explorer saturation is never going to be an easy task. But word of mouth seems to be working for Mozilla’s Firefox browser. According to a study by WebSideStory, a web analytics company, Internet Explorer has, for the seventh month in a row, lost some of its seemingly insurmountable market share.

The analysis showed that IE’s market share has fallen to 90.3%, while Firefox’s has risen to 5%. Of course, as long as IE is bundled with every Windows machine purchased, taking the browser’s share is not going to be easy. But the numbers indicate it is actually happening, albeit at a “piece at a time” pace.

Apple’s Safari and Opera’s browser have also made strides in the market share department. However, Firefox’s launch may have sounded a death knell for Mozilla’s original browser. WebSideStory’s report showed its market share has decreased, while Firefox continues to improve.

For more about IE versus Firefox, read Jason Dowdell’s article.

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.

As of March 25, 2004, Google claims a 41% market share of search engine users. This number is up from last year’s 35% share.

Search referral percentage measures the proportion of visitor traffic a search site sends to other sites on the Web. The percentage includes traffic from paid keywords, unpaid search results, and AdSense ads that appear on Google’s site.

Geoff Johnston, a WebSideStory analyst who tracks global Internet user trends, said, “Google’s share of search referral in the U.S. continues to grow dramatically. Google finally surpassed Yahoo in late 2002 and the gap is widening. Yahoo has made several strategic moves this year, but it remains to be seen if it can regain the ground it has lost.”

A breakdown of the search referral market share among the 3 major competitors appears below.

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