7th May 2008 10:03 am

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its ranking of the top search properties in Europe based on data from its comScore qSearch 2.0 service, which showed that Google Sites holds the leading position with more than 19 billion searches conducted in March, representing 79 percent of the European search market.

“With nearly 80 percent of all searches conducted in March, Google is far and away the leading search property in Europe,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore.

“However, we are seeing key local players show leadership in Eastern Europe where English is spoken less than in Western markets. With Russia’s online population now the fastest growing in Europe, it is likely that some of these local search engines will continue to gain traction and market share.”

Eastern European Search Players Factor Prominently into Ranking Google’s top position was followed by eBay, which accounted for 3.1 percent of European searches. Russian search portal Yandex ranked third with 2.2 percent search market share, slightly ahead of Yahoo! Sites at 2.0 percent and Microsoft Sites at 1.9 percent.

Two Polish properties, Nasza-Klasa.pl and QXL Ricardo also proved popular, with 1.3 percent and 1.2 percent shares, respectively. Another Russian property, Rambler Media, grabbed the tenth position with a 0.5-percent share.

Top 10 European Search Properties

1) Google Sites       
2) eBay               
3) Yandex             
4) Yahoo! Sites       
5) Microsoft Sites    
6) NASZA-KLASA.PL     
7) XL Ricardo        
8) AOL LLC            
9) Ask Network        
10) Rambler Media      

In March, 221.2 million Europeans conducted 24.6 billion searches, averaging 111 searches per searcher. Searchers in Finland exhibited the heaviest search activity with 143 searchers per searcher, followed by Portugal (128 searches per searcher) and the U.K. (124 searches per searcher).

Interestingly, Finland and Russia - two countries that share a border - showed the widest disparity in search intensity, with Russia, where Yandex led the search market, ranking at the bottom of the list with 78 searches per searcher, while Finland, a Google led search market, ranked at the top.

European Search Overview- Country by Country Breakdown

Country            Unique Searchers    Searches (MM)   Searches Per
Europe                   221,181           24,550             111
United Kingdom            32,392            4,030             124
Germany                   36,011            3,935             109
France                    26,280            2,955             112
Italy                     17,562            1,867             106
Spain                     14,535            1,472             101
Russia                    14,621            1,141              78
Netherlands               11,713            1,097              94
Sweden                     5,023              606             121
Belgium                    4,575              510             111
Portugal                   3,401              437             128
Switzerland                3,630              401             111
Austria                    3,528              399             113
Finland                    2,653              378             143
Denmark                    2,997              260              87
Norway                     2,327              183              79
Ireland                    1,290              116              90

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