Search market leader Google leads the December 2011 rankings of Experian Hitwise’s latest Search Engine and Social Analysis in UK, significantly increasing its market share of online searches.
YouTube accounted for a quarter of visits to social networking sites during the same month, it was revealed.
According to the research firm, Google Sites accounted for 91.75% of all searches conducted in the UK in December 2011, an increase of 0.67% over November 2011.
However, Microsoft and Yahoo! Sites lost their edge as they lost their share of visitors by 0.25%.
Experian Hitwise Market Research Analyst James Murray said Google was the standout performer in search and particularly during the hectic Christmas shopping period.
"We saw record levels of Internet traffic at Christmas with 2.18 billion visits going to online retailers in December, a year-on-year increase of 4.8 per cent. Retailers were relying more on search traffic in 2011, with 43 per cent of all visits coming from a search engine, and for every ten visits to retailers from search, nine were from Google during this critical period, "Murray added.
It was also revealed that social media was the third biggest source of traffic to online traders in the Christmas season, accounting for 8% of all visits to online retail websites in the month of December.
