Has Google Peaked?

For the first time since 2008, Google's share of the US Search market dropped below 75%, coming in at 74.8%, according to StatCoutner. This most recent change is driven off of a slight increase from Yahoo (up to 10.9%) with respect to market share and Bing remaining persistently in the game at roughly 12.5%.

The driving force behind this appears to have been the fact that the default search engine on Mozilla Firefox switched from Google to Yahoo. As hi-lighted in the Business Insider article, one of the biggest things to surface as a result of this increase is the immense power a default search engine can have on the overall search engine market. While still relatively easy to change your default, it appears many are not changing the default. Another interesting point raised in the article that I was not aware of is that Google is the default browser to Safari but their contract expires this year and rest assured that Yahoo and Bing will do their best to obtain a significant market share through this partnership. If this recent drop in market share is any indication, Google should do everything within its power to maintain its relationship with Safari. 

As mentioned in the article: "Search Engine Watch notes than desktops are becoming increasingly defunct as people use their smart phones and tablets to go online. These days, people access the internet often directly through apps, rendering traditional search engines obsolete. In 2014, mobile exceeded PC internet usage for the first time in history." I think Google, to its credit, as kept up to pace with the changing way people are accessing the internet and must continue to do so.

To say its the end of an era for Google might be a bit premature. On a global basis, Google is still the preeminent leader in search and it isn't even close. So while the competitors count tenths of a percentage point, Google still benefits from the luxury of being at the top of the moment while the others are fighting, albeit viciously, up that steep cliff.

Additional information available on Business Insider