LONDON, August 6 /PRNewswire/ --     According to ComScore's latest internet usage figures, three in every
four searches from the UK uses Google.

This is the first time Google has gone over the 75 per cent mark and
highlights the lack of competition for the search leader in this country.
Indeed, the second place was occupied by eBay not Yahoo, MSN, AOL or, the new
kids on the block, Ciul and WikiSearch.

eBay, took a 5.5 per cent market share. Yahoo took 4.3pc. MSN took 3.4pc.
AOL overtook Facebook, however, many commentators are suggesting this is due
to the acquisition of Bebo.

The figures - from June - also show 31 million UK internet users
conducted at least one search. A total of 3.9 billion searches were
undertaken.

Writing in Tech Radar (http://tinyurl.com/5gwjtl), Patrick Goss stated:

"Google's dominance of search is far from a surprise - but the fact that
their market share has grown further will be a major worry for the company's
competitors.

"Microsoft's open pursuit of Yahoo's search and advertising division
shows that the major players are concerned that, unless a concerted push is
made to win back a share of search, Google's dominance will continue to
grow."

In a recent interview with Martin Warner, Jimmy Wales, a founder of
Wikipedia and Wikisearch commented (video - http://tinyurl.com/create.php):

"All of the existing search engines, to me, are like [Encyclopaedia]
Britannica. They're closed. They're top down. The editorial decisions are
made behind closed doors."

"There are already open source (search) projects. (The challenge lies
with the question) how do you allow the public to participate whilst
excluding people who are just there to spam?"

"There's a lot of really interesting ideas floating around. We're in a
time of major transition in ways I don't even understand."

Martin Warner is a new media commentator and co-founder of the UK's
biggest business technology show, Technology of Tomorrow 
(http://www.tot2008.com). He commented:

"It is absolutely crucial that competition remains in search engine
market. It is very unhealthy for any one company to have such an enormous
market monopoly, and it does not ultimately serve the interests of consumers.

"Google has also capitalised on Yahoo's loss of direction as it
prevaricates over the Microsoft merger. However, Yahoo does still remain the
only real competitor to Google, and going forward, the argument for Yahoo to
merge with Microsoft is now more compelling than ever for them to produce an
effective competition to Google."



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