While Google gets the biggest share in search queries performed every month by the US Online Population, the search engine giant logged behind Yahoo in getting user clicks from their search result, according to recent study released by Complete.

The survey found that in August, of the 7.5 billion searchers done in the Internet, 67% where done using Google, while 20% and 9% where done using Yahoo and MSN/Live, respectively.

In terms of “search fulfillment,” the data in August shows that about 75% of searchers performed on Yahoo resulted in a referral, while searchers performed on Google and MSL/Live resulted in a referral of 65% and 59%, respectively, the study found.

“Lower search fulfillment numbers mean that on a percentage basis, fewer search queries in that engine resulted in the searcher clicking on a result link,” said Jeremy Crane, Compete’s director of search and online media in a blog post. “So from this perspective, one might consider Yahoo more effective at getting consumers the results they want.”

However, getting a lower search fulfillment number may not always mean inferior in quality of search results. For one thing, searchers may get answers right from the snippets that appear on the results page where further clicks are no longer relevant.

But according to Crane, “getting people to your site is a critical measure of search engine effectiveness”. From the online marketing standpoint, “the most important thing to look at is actual conversion on the site,” Crane added.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, September 29th, 2007 at 8:41 am under Google, Internet, Technology.

Read more entries by Ruben Francia.
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