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Yahoo! Overtakes Google in Latest American Customer Satisfaction Index

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 09:20 CDT

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

Yahoo's customer satisfaction score of 79 on the ACSI's 100-point scale is up almost 4% this year, while Google slipped 3.7% to 78, their second yearly decline in a row.

"Even more important than Yahoo's first lead over Google is the trend of their scores moving in opposite directions," said Larry Freed, online satisfaction expert and President and CEO of ForeSee Results, which sponsors the ACSI e-business report. "Since the ACSI is a leading indicator of financial performance on the macro scale and at the company level, we may see a real turnaround for Yahoo! in the next year."

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

"Ask.com is making huge inroads on the other competitors in the portal and search engine category," said Freed. "And it has done this despite a second relaunch this year, which was apparently carried off so well that it didn't have the usual backlash of dropping customer satisfaction scores. Ask.com has mastered the crucial mix of evolution and revolution."

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).

"There is no clear winner in the news and information space, as all of the sites have difficulty in differentiating themselves from the pack and leveraging the unique personalities that exist in their traditional channels," said Freed.

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).

About ForeSee Results

ForeSee Results is the market leader in online customer satisfaction management and specializes in converting satisfaction data into user-driven web development strategies. Using the methodology of the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), ForeSee Results has created a model that scientifically quantifies the elements that drive online customer satisfaction and predicts future behaviors, including the likelihood to return to the site or recommend the site to others. ForeSee Results, a privately held company located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, can be found online at www.ForeSeeResults.com.

About the ACSI

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is the only uniform, national, cross-industry measure of satisfaction with the quality of goods and services available in the United States. A key distinguishing feature of the ACSI methodology is its patented scientific approach to customer satisfaction measurement. The technology behind the ACSI computes scores that reflect performance--based on the relative impacts of various components of satisfaction on overall satisfaction and the likelihood of desirable future behaviors, such as repeat purchases. Accordingly, the ACSI methodology is able to isolate and determine the importance of the features and functions most likely to produce these behaviors--an important distinction from basic customer satisfaction ratings.

Source: Business Wire

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