Comscore Releases March 2008 European Search Rankings

8 in 10 European Searches Occur on Google Sites

Russian Search Engine Yandex Outpaces Yahoo! and Microsoft

LONDON, U.K., May 7, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its ranking of the top search properties in Europe based on data from its Comscore qSearch 2.0 service, which showed that Google Sites holds the leading position with more than 19 billion searches conducted in March, representing 79 percent of the European search market.

“With nearly 80 percent of all searches conducted in March, Google is far and away the leading search property in Europe,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore. “However, we are seeing key local players show leadership in Eastern Europe where English is spoken less than in Western markets. With Russia’s online population now the fastest growing in Europe, it is likely that some of these local search engines will continue to gain traction and market share.”

Eastern European Search Players Factor Prominently into Ranking

Google’s top position was followed by eBay, which accounted for 3.1 percent of European searches. Russian search portal Yandex ranked third with 2.2 percent search market share, slightly ahead of Yahoo! Sites at 2.0 percent and Microsoft Sites at 1.9 percent.

Two Polish properties, Nasza-Klasa.pl and QXL Ricardo also proved popular, with 1.3 percent and 1.2 percent shares, respectively. Another Russian property, Rambler Media, grabbed the tenth position with a 0.5-percent share.

Top 10 European Search Properties
March 2008
Total European Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Property

Searches (MM)

Share of Searches

Total Internet

24,550

100

Google Sites

19,434

79.2

eBay

752

3.1

Yandex

528

2.2

Yahoo! Sites

486

2.0

Microsoft Sites

469

1.9

NASZA-KLASA.PL

320

1.3

QXL Ricardo

298

1.2

AOL LLC

224

0.9

Ask Network

201

0.8

Rambler Media

125

0.5

*Excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Europeans Conducted 25 Billion Searches in March

In March, 221.2 million Europeans conducted 24.6 billion searches, averaging 111 searches per searcher. Searchers in Finland exhibited the heaviest search activity with 143 searchers per searcher, followed by Portugal (128 searches per searcher) and the U.K. (124 searches per searcher). Interestingly, Finland and Russia – two countries that share a border – showed the widest disparity in search intensity, with Russia, where Yandex led the search market, ranking at the bottom of the list with 78 searches per searcher, while Finland, a Google led search market, ranked at the top.

European Search Overview– Country by Country Breakdown*
March 2008
Total European Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Country

Unique Searchers (000)

Searches (MM)

Searches Per Searcher

Europe

221,181

24,550

111

United Kingdom

32,392

4,030

124

Germany

36,011

3,935

109

France

26,280

2,955

112

Italy

17,562

1,867

106

Spain

14,535

1,472

101

Russia

14,621

1,141

78

Netherlands

11,713

1,097

94

Sweden

5,023

606

121

Belgium

4,575

510

111

Portugal

3,401

437

128

Switzerland

3,630

401

111

Austria

3,528

399

113

Finland

2,653

378

143

Denmark

2,997

260

87

Norway

2,327

183

79

Ireland

1,290

116

90

*Excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate

Ayaan Mohamud
Comscore, Inc.
+ 44 (0) 207-099-1775
worldpress@comscore.com