Google, on the other hand, proved to be the greatest source of traffic for key U.S. industries. The search giant represented 23.42% of automotive searches (a 7% gain over last July), 20.22% of shopping searches (a 7% annual gain) and 30.41% of travel searches (a 6-% gain over last year). Notably, the gains in travel searches may be linked to Google's proposed acquisition of travel software company ITA, which Brafton covered in July.
Bing had the smallest share of vertical searches, but had the most significant annual increases in July 2010. It demonstrated year-on-year gains of 77% in the automotive industry, 33% in the health industry, 84% in the shopping industry and 69% in the travel industry - though it accounted for less than 3% of each of these industries' searches.
Ask.com also showed significant gains in July 2010. The community-based search engine increased in market share by 6%, accounting for 2.32% of searches last month. While it still has a long way to go, even to catch up to search third-runner Bing, its quick ascent indicates users like social search features, which Ask rolled out last month.
(HOTELMARKETING.COM, August 2010)
