More Google Queries Get Google Maps

The share of Google searches that result in visits to Google Maps has skyrocketed since last year, according to the online traffic-measurement firm Hitwise. Over the week ending Jan. 6, 2007, 0.22 percent of Google searchers went on to Google Maps. During the same week this year, 0.67 percent did. Hitwise calculated the figures by analyzing the behavior of 10 million Internet users.

Heather Dougherty, a research director for Hitwise, said the change did not simply mean that more people were searching Google for Google Maps. Searches for “Mapquest” are still 10 times as common, even though Google now sends half as many people to MapQuest than to its own mapping site.

Rather, Ms. Dougherty said, Google appears to be promoting itself more aggressively in advertisements alongside search results. Ads for Google Maps appear beside searches for “map quest” and “mapquests,” among other terms.

In addition, last January, Google whittled the number of mapping sites that it suggests to users who search for an address. Searchers once were offered links to MapQuest, Yahoo and Google Maps. Now, they see only Google Maps.



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