LONDON, August 6 /PRNewswire/ -- According to ComScore's latest internet usage figures, three in every four searches from the UK uses Google.

This is the first time Google has gone over the 75 per cent mark and highlights the lack of competition for the search leader in this country. Indeed, the second place was occupied by eBay not Yahoo, MSN, AOL or, the new kids on the block, Ciul and WikiSearch.

eBay, took a 5.5 per cent market share. Yahoo took 4.3pc. MSN took 3.4pc. AOL overtook Facebook, however, many commentators are suggesting this is due to the acquisition of Bebo.

The figures - from June - also show 31 million UK internet users conducted at least one search. A total of 3.9 billion searches were undertaken.

Writing in Tech Radar (http://tinyurl.com/5gwjtl), Patrick Goss stated:

"Google's dominance of search is far from a surprise - but the fact that their market share has grown further will be a major worry for the company's competitors.

"Microsoft's open pursuit of Yahoo's search and advertising division shows that the major players are concerned that, unless a concerted push is made to win back a share of search, Google's dominance will continue to grow."

In a recent interview with Martin Warner, Jimmy Wales, a founder of Wikipedia and Wikisearch commented (video - http://tinyurl.com/create.php):

"All of the existing search engines, to me, are like [Encyclopaedia] Britannica. They're closed. They're top down. The editorial decisions are made behind closed doors."

"There are already open source (search) projects. (The challenge lies with the question) how do you allow the public to participate whilst excluding people who are just there to spam?"

"There's a lot of really interesting ideas floating around. We're in a time of major transition in ways I don't even understand."

Martin Warner is a new media commentator and co-founder of the UK's biggest business technology show, Technology of Tomorrow (http://www.tot2008.com). He commented:

"It is absolutely crucial that competition remains in search engine market. It is very unhealthy for any one company to have such an enormous market monopoly, and it does not ultimately serve the interests of consumers.

"Google has also capitalised on Yahoo's loss of direction as it prevaricates over the Microsoft merger. However, Yahoo does still remain the only real competitor to Google, and going forward, the argument for Yahoo to merge with Microsoft is now more compelling than ever for them to produce an effective competition to Google."

For more information / comment please contact Vicky Lyons or Kully Dhadda on +44(0)7884-246-858, kully@flamepr.com

For more information / comment please contact Vicky Lyons or Kully Dhadda on +44(0)7884-246-858, kully@flamepr.com