Google Gains in Popularity, But Will It Last?

"Over the past year, Google took market share from Yahoo and MSN, according to a new report from industry analyst Hitwise. But the increasing popularity of vertical search sites poses a significant threat to all of the major search engines. "

Article from SearchEngineWatch

I've noticed that traffic from the "other" search engines (non-google) has continued to drop off over the past year. Google is the darling of search right now, but can they hold onto their market share or even increase their grip? I personally think they will continue to be a large player, but I think MSN and Yahoo will give them a run for their money. Both MSN and Yahoo seem to be getting very aggressive with their offline advertising as they try to regain some of the ground they've lost to Google.

You know, I've never seen a TV commercial for Google. But why would they need to advertise? They've got so much viral marketing going on from their loyal users it's incredible. I was watching Jay Leno last night and Ben Stiller said something about searching on Google. He didn't say "search the Web" or "use a search engine" he said search on Google. Most people these days don't even talk about searching, they use Google as a verb, "go Google it", or "do a google on it". The crazy thing is, everyone knows exactly what you mean when you say that, and that just reinforces in people's minds that Google is the king of search. You don't hear people "Yahooing" or "MSNing" anything -- even though those two companies are the ones spending the big bucks to get us to use the butterfly and start Yahooing.

Got the butterfly? I actually kind of like MSN's butterfly-guy commercials. I think those are pretty clever. I don't know if they work as far as getting new customers, but I like the commercials.

Do you Yahoo? Yahoo's still got a lot of good things going for them. They still have a large market share, but when it comes to search, Yahoo and MSN are both losing serious ground to Google. It's a very interesting phenomenon, because of the big three, the only one who's not advertising is the one that's gaining market share. There are so many factors that play into this, but it's an interesting phenomenon.