Yahoo Tops Google in Customer Satisfaction Survey

Ann Arbor, MI, August 15, 2007--Yahoo has taken over the top spot from Google for the first time in the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) report on e-business Web sites, released Tuesday.

The annual ACSI e-business report includes measurements of search engines and portals, as well as online news and information sites.

“Yahoo edged out Google for the first time ever,” said Larry Freed, author of the E-biz special report. “Google dropped for the second year in a row, while Yahoo's gains suggest that despite its well-documented woes on Wall Street, customers are taking notice of recent changes to the Web site.”

Yahoo’s customer satisfaction score of 79, on ACSI’s 100-point scale, is up almost 4% this year, while Google slipped 3.7% to 78, its second consecutive yearly decline.

Ask.com (75) posted this year’s biggest increase – 6% – and AOL.com the biggest decline, down more than 9% to 67. MSN.com (75) is up only one point this year.

In addition to measuring portals and search engines, the annual e-business report measures news and information sites: ABCNews.com (74), MSNBC.com (74), CNN.com (73), NYTimes.com (73) and USAToday.com (72).

Customer satisfaction with the e-business category, overall, slipped for the first time this year, falling more than a point to 75.2 – lower than the ACSI national average across all industries (75.3), and the latest ACSI average score for e-commerce companies (80).