Yandex Outpaces Microsoft in Search Traffic
February 27, 2013
We knew Yandex was one to keep an eye on. Now, Search Engine Watch announces, “Yandex Just Passed Bing to Become 4thLargest Global Search Engine.” According to comScore‘s recent qSearch report analyzing traffic from last November and December, Yandex processed 4.844 billion queries to Microsoft’s 4.477 billion. This despite the fact that the report lumps together traffic from Bing with that of other Microsoft properties like MSN and Windows Live. (Google, of course, is still way, way, way ahead with 114.73 billion search queries.)
Writer Michael Bonfils notes that we cannot be sure what drives this Yandex lead. He observes, though, that the pool of Russian users is still growing and evolving, while the Western markets where Microsoft processes the most traffic seem to be approaching saturation. The article concludes:
“You can speculate all day about what’s happening here. Do Russians just search more? Are Russians searching more because they don’t like the results? Are they gaining market share in countries like Turkey or the Ukraine? Who wins with unique users?
“Regardless of all that, I wasn’t expecting to see Yandex, which doesn’t have nearly the marketing budgets of Microsoft, surpass them in global search queries by the end of 2012. Nothing better than seeing incredibly talented underdogs race past one of the biggies.”
Though we find this development less of a surprise, we join Bonfils in cheering for the underdog. What will the future bring for the formidable Yandex?
Cynthia Murrell, February 27, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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