14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is no match for Google in the race for European supremacy. Over the pond, the two rival companies are not exactly neck and neck, with the Mountain View search giant taking the lead, and Microsoft trailing behind. Metrics firm comScore revealed that Google is by far the most popular online destination across the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Google sites are the top online properties in April 2007, continuing an ascendant trend from March. Furthermore, the statistics published indicate that Google has managed not only to take over the lion's share on the three European markets, but also to steadily increase its domination. In the battle for European eyeballs, Microsoft is just runner up. And in contrast to Google, the Redmond Company is stagnating, its share of the European Internet pie remaining constant.
"Google maintained its place as the most-visited property in the U.K. with 27.4 million U.K. visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites and eBay, with 27 and 21.6 million visitors, respectively. Google and MSN were visited by nearly nine out of every 10 Britons," revealed comScore. The U.K. is actually the only market where Microsoft has faired well in comparison to Google. The Redmond Company did increase its overall market share by 1% while the Mountain View search giant's advance was halted.
The French also sided with Google, pushing the search engine further up by no less than 3%, to a total of over 17.6 million, more than 1.5 million over Microsoft. The Redmond Company also experienced some growth but the size is irrelevant in comparison to Google's.
"Google Sites was the most-visited property in Germany, attracting 23 million German visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites with 17.7 million visitors and eBay with 17.4 million visitors," comScore added. And Germany is the stage where Microsoft is by far outperformed by Google. In the all out battle to attract traffic, and to monetize eyeballs via online advertising, Microsoft is increasingly losing Internet ground to Google.