Google is already feeling the effects from the recent
loss of a search deal, as a potentially larger deal looms. Market researcher
Statcounter says Google’s share of U.S. search traffic, excluding mobile
devices, declined to 75.3% in December from 77.5% in November, after the maker
of the Firefox browser made Yahoo the default search engine. Yahoo
share of search traffic excluding mobile devices grew to 10%, from 8%. That’s a
significant shift, given that Firefox accounted for roughly 14% of U.S.
browsers in December.
Google’s Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer are the
dominant browsers on personal computers, with average U.S. market shares of 37%
and 34%, respectively, in 2014. Chrome’s share has quadrupled since 2010,
helping Google to be less dependent on other browsers for search traffic. But
Google faces potentially larger losses on mobile devices amid reports that
Apple is considering dropping Google as the default search provider on its
Safari browser, which is standard on the iPhone and iPad. With that advantage,
Statcounter estimates that 54% of U.S. mobile traffic came from Safari in
December, compared with 41% from Google browsers including Chrome.
The Apple deal is “an even bigger opportunity” for Yahoo or
Microsoft to take share from Google. Apple may be inclined to drop Google as
the default search for Safari, as the companies’ rivalry intensifies. Google’s
Android operating system powered 84% of smartphones shipped in the third
quarter according to Strategy Analytics, compared with 12% for Apple’s iOS.
Apple famously gave itself a black eye when in 2012 it dropped
Google Maps for the iPhone, replacing it with an Apple Maps app that executives
later acknowledged wasn’t ready. Consumers may be similarly put off by a switch
to Bing or Yahoo search as the default on Safari. They would have the option to
switch back to Google of course.
Click
here to access the full article on The Wall Street Journal.