Google continues to put smiles on people’s faces, the American Consumer Satisfaction Index 2009 e-Business report shows. For the second consecutive year, Google’s search service scored the highest in consumer satisfaction, according to the ACSI, which measures customers’ satisfaction with portals, search engines, and news and information Web sites.
The Internet search giant scored 86 percent, according to the 2009 survey by ForeSee Results and the University of Michigan released Tuesday. Google’s score, based on a 100-point scale, is nine points higher than rival Yahoo, which scored 77.
“Google is unquestionably king of search, so the only competition is for second place,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee.
Listening To Feedback
“In general we approach everything that we do by putting users first and we are constantly testing and experimenting things and soliciting user input,” said Gabriel Stricker, a Google spokesperson. “Ultimately we have always said we want to create products and features that delight our users.”
“Whenever we get feedback, both individual and on a broader basis, when users are saying we love what you do, that definitely is a signal that we are on the right track,” he added.
While Google scored highest in comparison to competitors Yahoo, Ask.com and MSN, its score didn’t increase from last year’s score, also 86 percent.
ACSI’s results were calculated before Microsoft’s decision engine, Bing, entered the market. Bing, since its release in June, has been well accepted by users, has scored high marks, and has taken some search-market share from Yahoo and Google, according to research companies StatCounter and comScore.
In June, Google had 66.1 percent of the search market. By July, after Bing was released, that percentage dropped to 64.8 percent, according to StatCounter.
Still, Google’s head start and large market share may be too much for Bing, observers say.
“Google’s customers…