Google have – as always – come out top of the US search engine market share statistics for December, driving 50.8% of all searches, with Yahoo in second place with 23.6%.
Microsoft’s Windows Live takes only 8.4% share, but it will be interesting to see how, or if, this changes over the next few months as Vista starts to roll out with its integrated Live Search options.
Yahoo’s ‘Brand Universe’ brand centric websites which were announced in November 2006 have started to go live, with sites such as Nintendo Wii which contain no original content but host scraped content from other sites.
Revolving around one brand alone, ‘Brand Universe’ sites take content from social media site such as Flickr, Yahoo! Answers and other Yahoo! owned sites to deliver a brand focused way to connect user interests across their properties.
By the end of 2007 Brand Universe is set to have 100 brand sites up and running, including sites for popular TV programmes, films, bands etc – some of the sites due to launch next include Sims, The Office and Harry Potter.
Although online clothing sales only account for 3% of online retail sales, the IMRG estimates that online clothing buys now account for 10% of the UK’s total retail sales.
Not being able to try before you clearly doesn’t deter many online shoppers these days; estimates predict a 138% increase in online clothes shopping over the next 4 years, when sales are expected to reach £2.9bn.
Mintel analyst Neil Mason told E-consultancy: “Last year was the first year that the business case for selling fashion over the internet came close to being proven, and fashion retailers have only just started to see the justification in investing millions of pounds in improving their internet presence.”
With 98% of UK internet users now shopping online (the UK spends more online than any other European country) it’s no surprise that online spend continues to rise, although a recent survey found that many online retailers had plenty of room for improvement.
According to Marketing Assistance and Blast Radius, differences in the way retailers and consumers think was damaging customer experience, leaving much room for improvement.
