WebProNews

Nearly three times as many shoppers chose Google over Yahoo! to search for holiday bargains. If a percent were a person, MSN was searched by a dwarf-only .79% of Shopping and Classified site traffic originated from Redmond. And if you're name's "mp3 player," you'll always be the less talented and unnoticed older brother of iPod. Welcome, MSN and mp3 player, to Charlie Murphy status.

In total, 11.1 percent of Shopping and Classified site visited originated from the Google search box, compared Yahoo!'s 4.05 percent. That one-in-ten number for Google represents a 28 percent increase in December 2005 over December 2004.

Hitwise says the leading retail sites receiving traffic from Google last month were eBay, Amazon, Froogle, and BizRate. Combined, these fours sites accounted for 18.1 percent of Google's downstream retail traffic.

Suddenly, the GOOG $600 per share price target isn't so surprising to Hitwise's Bill Tancer.

"Just when some thought that search as an acquisition channel had reached its limit, it continues to outpace the market," said Tancer, General Manager of Worldwide Research at Hitwise. "In order to succeed in this increasingly competitive environment, online retailers must find new and creative ways to intelligently leverage this channel."

Apparently, all those searchers were looking for an iPod, not an mp3 player. Sure, the less sexy mp3 player rode his brother's coattails a bit, as queries for him were up 28 percent over the 2004 holiday season. But iPod, the young buck, saw a spike of 175 percent.

Did you say something about Mike's brother, Larry Jordan? I didn't think so.

The same kind of recognition was enjoyed by Apple iTunes. Though traffic to music download sites hit record levels the week after Christmas, spiking 183 percent over the year before, iTunes controlled 41.2 percent of that traffic.

"2005 was another successful year for Apple's iPod, with the introduction of 3 new products - the iPod shuffle, the iPod Nano, and the iPod with video," said Tancer.

"No product in recent memory has captured the public's attention in the same way, and led to such an explosion in accessories and complimentary products. As video offerings for the iPod grow, Apple's competitors will have to work hard to challenge its first-to-market status."

Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.