Neuland quotes some interesting numbers on Google indicating that it’s not the completely dominant uberpower media sometimes suggest these days:
Search: Google at 47.40% vs. Yahoo 16% and MSN 11.50% e-Mail: Yahoo Mail 42.40%, MSN Hotmail 22.90%, MySpace Mail 19.50% and lastly Gmail 2.54% News: Yahoo News 6.30%, Google News 1.90% Business Information: Yahoo Finance 34.90%, MSN Money Central 13.40% and Google Finance in 40th place with a measly 0.29% Maps: Mapquest leads with 56.30%, followed by Yahoo Maps 20.50%, Google Maps 7.50%, MSN Virtual Earth 4.30% and finally Google Earth with 2.00%.
While Google (of course!) is a megaplayer with a handful of, say, blockbuster services, they’re also running small me-too services in other fields where they’re far from dominating the market. (Apropos Long Tail, huh?) Says Steffan on Neuland:
The lesson? Google has the money and resources to sprinkle the Net with placeholders, or as The Economist put it (sub required): “Google seems to use betas as dogs sprinkle trees—so that rivals know where it is.”
