While Google still outscored any other individual search portal on the Index in 2010, it fell 7% in its ACSI score from 86 in 2009 to 80 in 2010. This matches Google’s lowest score to date, originally set in 2002. However, by scoring 80, Google still places in the top third of all companies rated by ACSI.

Google’s closest individual competitor, Bing, debuted in third place this year with an ACSI score of 77. ForeSee says this strong debut indicates Bing has a real chance to challenge Google’s search dominance.

AOL Surge May Not Be All Good News
Meanwhile, AOL saw a 6% year-over-year increase to match its previous ACSI record score of 74 from 2006. This also represents a strong 32% increase in satisfaction since it was first measured in 2002.

Although AOL has halved Google’s lead from 12 points in 2009 to six points in 2010, ForeSee analysis suggests AOL’s performance may not be as strong as it appears. According to ForeSee, usually when an industry laggard reports increased customer satisfaction, it’s because all of its customers have left except for the truly loyal and satisfied base.

Other Findings
Some other study findings are positive for Google and Yahoo, but negative for AOL.

• Google has the most loyal following, with 80% of its users citing it as their primary search engine.
• AOL users have the oldest average age, while Yahoo users are youngest as a group.
• Thirty percent of the Google users surveyed reported having used Bing in the last month, while 56% of Bing users reported having used Google in the last month.

Microsoft’s Search Share Jumps 50% Annually
Microsoft’s share of the US search market increased 50% between 2009 and 2010, according to data from The Nielsen Company. While the top two US search providers, Google and Yahoo, experienced negative year-over-year relative growth in their share of the US search market between June 2009 and June 2010, number three provider Microsoft (represented by MSN/Windows Live/Bing) experienced a dramatic increase in its share during the same time period.

Between June 2009 and June 2010, Microsoft’s market share grew from 8.9% to 13.4%, a 50.9% relative increase. Most of this growth came at the expense of Yahoo, whose share slipped 15.8%, from 16.2% to 13.7%. Leader Google experienced minimal change, dropping 1.7% from 66.1% to 65% market share.

About the Data: The American Customer Satisfaction Index is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the US. Data from interviews with approximately 70,000 customers annually are used as inputs into an econometric model to measure satisfaction with more than 225 companies in 45 industries and 10 economic sectors, as well as more than 130 federal government departments, agencies, and websites.

eBay and AOL benefited the most from an uptick in Americans’ internet habits during March 2010, according to data from The Nielsen Company.

Americans Engage More Online
With growth that may be partially explained by March 2010 having three more days than February 2010, Americans conducted an average of 57 internet sessions during the month, 7.6% more than 53 the previous month. The average number of domains visited per person grew 7.2%, from 83 to 89, and the average number of web pages visited per person increased 4.1%, from 2,543 to 2,646.

In addition, the average PC time person increased 5.9%, from 57 hours, two minutes and 38 seconds to 60 hours, 25 minutes and seven seconds. The amount of time users spent viewing the average web page grew 1.2%, from 55 to 56 seconds. The total number of active internet users rose 3.3%, from 191.4 million to 197.7 million.

eBay, AOL Biggest Gainers among Top Parent Companies
As opposed to February 2010, when six of the top 10 parent companies lost audience share and all lost average time spent in their sites, in March 2010 nine of the top 10 parent companies gained in both categories.

Online auction retailer eBay led in both unique audience (5.8%) and time spent (12%) growth, percentagewise. eBay had a unique audience of 66.3 million users who spent an average of one hour, 26 minutes and eight seconds, and was ranked eighth in terms of audience size. Number five AOL LLC followed with 5.1% audience growth and 8.1 time spent growth, ending the month with an audience of 85.1 million users who spent an average of two hours, 14 minutes and 38 seconds.

Google had the largest monthly audience with 157.7 million users (up 2.8%) spending an average of one hour, 56 minutes and 14 seconds (up 1.5%). Microsoft followed with an audience of 136.7 million (up 1.7%) and average time spent of one hour, 59 minutes and 59 seconds (up 2.8%). Yahoo came in third with 133 million unique visitors (up 3.7%) and average time spent of two hours, 34 minutes and 56 seconds (up 6.1%). Facebook continued its trend of featuring a much longer time spent average (six hours, 59 minutes and 15 seconds, up 1.8%) than any other top 10 parent company.

Although News Corp. Online came in sixth with a unique audience of 74.9 million, it was the only top 10 parent company to report a decline in either audience (down 0.5%) or average time spent (down 9.5%).

All Top Web Brands Grow Audience
Unlike the top 10 parent company results, all top 10 web brands reported audience growth during March 2010. However, number five web brand YouTube (down 1.7%) number nine web brand Apple (down 0.7%), and number 10 web brand Ask Search Network (down 2.8%) saw decreases in average time spent on their sites.

AOL Media Network, the number seven web brand with a unique audience of 85.1 million, led percentagewise in both unique audience growth (5.5%) and average time spent growth (two hours, 14 minutes and 38 seconds, up 8.1%). Google had the largest monthly unique audience (149.1 million, up 3.5%), and its average time spent of one hour, eighteen minutes and 58 seconds rose 3.2%.

Yahoo came in second with a unique audience of 131.4 million (up 4%) and average time spent of two hours, 35 minutes and six seconds (up 5.4%). Facebook had the third-largest audience of 117.1 million (up 4.7%) and held as commanding a lead in average time spent among web brands as it did among parent companies (six hours, 59 minutes and 15 seconds, up 1.8%).

Americans Do Less with Web in Feb.
Americans quite simply did less with the internet last month than they did in January 2010, according to previous Nielsen data. The average sessions/visits per person declined 7.3%, from 55 to 51. Domains visited per person dropped 2.2%, from 90 to 88. Web pages per person declined 7.9%, from 2,621 to 2,415. PC time per person decreased 7.8%, from 58 hours, 52 minutes and five seconds to 54 hours, 16 minutes and 37 seconds. The average duration of a web page viewed shrank 0.4%, from 56 seconds to 55 seconds. And the total number of active internet users fell 0.9%, from about 203.1 million to about 201.2 million.

More than 180 million US internet users watched 31.2 billion videos in March 2010, according to the comScore Video Metrix service.


Google’s Reign Continues
Once again, slightly more than four of every 10 online videos viewed in the US in March 2010 were viewed on Google Sites. Americans watched a total of 13.06 billion videos on Google Sites for the month, representing 41.8% of all online videos viewed.

YouTube accounted for the vast majority of videos viewed at the property. Hulu ranked second with 1.1 billion videos, or 3.4% of all online videos viewed. Microsoft Sites ranked third with 655 million (2.1%), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 478 million (1.5%) and CBS Interactive with 457 million (1.5%).

Google Sites Dominate Unique Viewers, Videos per Viewer
Google Sites were also the clear winner in terms of number of unique viewers and average videos per viewer in March 2010. About 136 million unique viewers watched an average of 96 videos during the month. Following were Yahoo Sites with 56.2 million viewers (8.5 videos per viewer) and CBS Interactive with 46.7 million viewers (9.8 videos per viewer). Hulu, ranked seventh in terms of unique viewers (40 million), had the second-highest average videos per viewer (26.7).

In total, 180.2 million Americans viewed an average of 173.3 videos each.

Competitors Tremble at Tremor
In March 2010, Tremor Media ranked as the top video ad network with a potential reach of 96.5 million viewers, or 53.5% of the total video viewing audience. Tremor has been leading in potential reach for several months. Adconion Video Network ranked second with a potential reach of 81.6 million viewers (45.2% penetration) followed by Advertising.com Video Network with 80.8 million viewers (44.8%).

Other Findings
Other notable findings from March 2010 include:

• The top video ad networks in terms of their actual reach delivered were: Joost Video Network (by Adconion Media Group) with 38% penetration of online video viewers, SpotXchange Video Ad Network with 19.9%, and BBE with 19.1%.
• 84.8% of the total US internet audience viewed online video.
• 135.3 million viewers watched 12.9 billion videos on YouTube.com (95.6 videos per viewer).
• The average Hulu viewer watched 26.7 videos, totaling 2.6 hours of video per viewer.
• The duration of the average online video was 4.3 minutes.

Americans watched 28.1 billion online videos in February 2010, according to previous findings of the comScore Video Metrix service. Google Sites accounted for roughly four in 10 online videos viewed, with users watching 11.9 billion videos on Google Sites in February 2010. YouTube.com represented more than 99% of videos viewed on the property.

More than 174 million viewers watched an average of 161 videos per viewer during February 2010. Google Sites attracted 133.2 million unique viewers during the month (93.9 videos per viewer). Following were Yahoo Sites with 53.5 million viewers (8.5 videos per viewer) and CBS Interactive with 45.3 million viewers (6.4 videos per viewer).

March 2010 coupon traffic measured 12.05 million users, a 33% increase from 9.04 million users in March 2009. During the month, online coupon users generated about $33.4 million in sales, a 33% jump from $25.05 million in March 2009. There were 418,911 online coupons available for 50,904 retailers, and 50,904 printable coupons available for 52,000 stores.

March 2010 Brand and Category Highlights
Victoria’s Secret, Kohl’s and JCPenney were the top three most-searched stores. Fantastic Sam’s, IHOP and Kentucky Fried Chicken were the top three printable bands searched last month. The top three printable categories searched were food, clothing and pizza.

March 2010 Local/State Highlights
The top three printable ZIP codes searched were 60544 (Plainfield, IL), 30024 (Suwanee, GA) and 07728 (Freehold, NJ). The top three states using printable coupons were Illinois, Minnesota and Georgia. The top three states using online coupons were New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Coupon Redemptions Grow 27%
Following a leveling-off period from 2006-08, coupon redemptions grew by 27% in 2009, according to analysis by The Nielsen Company. While newspaper inserts are still the primary method of coupon distribution (89%) and redemption (53%), internet redemption growth has skyrocketed, rising 263% in 2009. Other paperless coupon distribution methods, such as electronic checkout (39%), digital promotions (31%) and shelf pad (30%), also helped drive 2009’s significant growth in coupon redemptions.