Google usage in the UK drops below 90%

Google’s search engine market share in the UK has fallen, according to a company that monitors web traffic. The 89.33 per cent share is Google’s lowest in five years, says Experian Hitwise. Microsoft’s Bing is in second place, with 5 per cent of UK searchers opting for it. Yahoo’s Ask – previously known as Ask Jeeves – is in third.

Experian Hitwise used data from ISPs to analyse the searches of 8 million people in the UK.

Bing’s growth is partly down to being the default search engine on Windows 8.

Luca Paderni, an analyst from Forrester Research, told the BBC: “In the UK, Bing has been using very aggressive tactics of promotion for the last few months in preparation for the Christmas season.

“But Google is still dominant, and we would need to see a trend over more months to call it a consistent decline.”

Google may still have a huge lead in the UK, but in some territories it’s playing second fiddle to home-grown alternatives.

In China, most searchers opt for Baidu, while in Russia, Yandex outs Google to the top spot.

Source: BBC