comScore: Local Web Searching Soars

October 02, 2006
By Katy Bachman, AdWeek

More than one-third of the U.S. population or 109 million people in July performed 849 million local searches
in July, a 43 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to a study released Thursday by comScore
Networks. Most of the searches, about two out of five or 41 percent, were searching for something in their
local market, such as a car rental office or dry cleaner.

Google sites got the largest share of the searches at 29.5 percent, followed by Yahoo sites (29.2 percent),
Microsoft (12.3 percent), Time Warner Network (7.1 percent), Verizon Communications (6.6 percent), YellowPages.com
(3.9 percent), Ask Network (2.7 percent), Local.com (1.9 percent), InfoSpace Network (1.9 percent), DexOnline.com
(1.4 percent), and all other sites (3.2 percent).

“Local search is experiencing strong growth as more consumers adapt to the ‘always on’ nature of their broadband
connection, which enables them to quickly find information on local businesses,” said Jack Flanagan, executive
vp of ComScore Media Metrix.

The study also found that local searches led to consumer action. In the first half of the year, 47 percent
of consumers visited a local merchant as a result of their search, 41 percent made contact offline, and
37 percent made contact online.

With that kind of activity, it’s not surprising that local paid search gets the lion’s share of local
online advertising. In 2007, Borrell Associates projects local paid search will get 86.1 percent of local
online ad dollars in 2007, doubling to $1.8 billion, from $938 million this year.