We shouldn’t be surprised that local search shares by Search Engine mirror the shares of all searches on all Search Engines. Google and Yahoo being almost neck and neck, which is a little different that general search. Still Google and Yahoo are the two most popular Search Engines, both in general search and local search.
Those two Internet players own nearly 60 percent of the local search market, which continues to grow at a strong pace. ComScore networks said 63 percent of US online users, numbering around 109 million people, conducted some type of local search online in July 2006. Their report cited that as a 43 percent increase year over year from July 2005.

Share of Local Searches by Site
July 2006
Total U.S. Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch

Total Internet
Population Total Local Searches:
100%
Google Sites          29.8%
Yahoo! Sites          29.2%
Microsoft Sites          12.3%
Time Warner Network    7.1%
Verizon Communications    6.6%
YellowPages.com          3.9%
Ask Network          2.7%
Local.com                1.9%
InfoSpace Network    1.9%
DexOnline.com          1.4%
All Other                3.2%

Why is local search so important to web site owners? Local search online has started becoming a factor in offline activity. The comScore study said that during the second quarter of 2006, 47 percent of local searchers visited a local merchant as a result of their search behavior, while 41 percent made contact offline. More than one-third (37 percent) made contact online as a result of conducting a local area search.

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