A survey of consumer satisfaction in July 2005 conducted by UK-based market researcher Keynote Systems ranked Google in first place in the search market, and statistical research my Media Metrix shows Google in first place as well.

The Keynote study rated consumer satisfaction in a number of areas. Google was followed in its rankings by Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves and Lycos. The study also showed Google’s competitors closing the gap since Keynote’s last report on this topic was released in May 2004.

The new Keynote study found that actual search results returned by the five search engines do not differ significantly. “Consumer success in doing complex searches showed that the performance of Lycos, Ask Jeeves and Microsoft's MSN was as good as Google and Yahoo,” Keynote said.

"Google is the king of customer experience in the search engine industry, but Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves are improving," Bonny Brown, director of research and public services for Keynote, said in an official statement. "Given the open nature of the Web, as these sites continue to improve the user experience, they will undoubtedly begin to attract more users and improve user loyalty. Obviously this will impact the advertising side of the business."

Since the time of the May 2004 report, Yahoo was able to improve its consumer satisfaction rating by improving its local search service, an area that is often criticized by consumers for all search engines. MSN improved its rating through separating its sponsored results from web search results, Keynote said.

The Media Metrix report found that Google was the market share leader in the U.S. with 36.5 percent of the 4.8 billion searches performed in the use during July 2005.Yahoo is in a strong second position with 30.5 percent of all searches.

Media Metrix also said that Yahoo continues to have the leading search toolbar, which served as the starting point for 51 percent of all toolbar searches; 11 percent of all searches are now toolbar searches, up from 8 percent a year ago. Total searches are up 22 percent from a year ago.

Third place for overall searches submitted went to MSN at 15.5 percent, followed by AOL at 9.9 percent, Ask Jeeves at 6.1 percent.

Technology journalist and commentator John C. Dvorak recently told SYS-CON.TV that Google has deep pockets and “a lot of smart people,” which should enable the company to maintain its search leadership for the forseeable future.