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Yahoo! Messenger Ranks Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Instant Messaging Services

Posted on: Wednesday, 11 October 2006, 09:00 CDT

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Yahoo! Messenger ranks highest among primary instant messaging (IM) services, and Dogpile ranks highest among search engines in satisfying residential Internet service subscribers, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Residential Online Service Customer Satisfaction Study(SM) released today.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050527/LAF028LOGO-a )

The study, now in its third year, examines the consumer behavior, experiences and satisfaction of Internet service subscribers with the most frequently used online services, including instant messaging, search engines/functions and Web portals. A portal is a Web site that allows an Internet user to do many or all of the following activities: information searches, news, email, online shopping, stock quotes, weather, and entertainment searches. While Web portals are measured in the study, there is no official ranking for the segment.

Yahoo! Messenger ranks highest among primary instant messaging (IM) services for a second consecutive year, performing particularly well in all three factors that contribute to customer satisfaction: security, performance and reliability, and features. MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger, respectively, follow Yahoo! in the rankings. Among customers who report using IM on a regular or occasional basis, nearly 70 percent report that to some degree, instant messaging has replaced the use of traditional telephones.

"One of the trends we see in the 2006 study is that the percentage of Internet users who use IM on a daily basis is essentially unchanged from 2005 at 36 percent," said Frank Perazzini, director of telecommunications research at J.D. Power and Associates. "This indicates that some of the usage gains we are seeing in text messaging in our wireless studies are coming at the expense of IM usage."

Included in the study for the first time, Dogpile ranks highest among search engines, with top ratings from Internet service subscribers in all three factors that determine overall satisfaction within the segment: ease of use, functionality and results. Ask.com and Google, respectively, follow Dogpile in the segment rankings.

The study finds that nearly 75 percent of Internet subscribers use multiple search engines. Forty-four percent of those customers report using multiple search engines because each one has better sources depending on customer needs.

"Some brands in the segment have been successful this year in rekindling the message that there are more search options available outside of market share leaders Google and Yahoo!," said Perazzini. "Dogpile, for example, aggregates the search results of all of the major search engines to provide a one-stop shop for Internet users. Additionally, Ask.com offers users a preview pane that provides them with a quick snapshot of the results page. If users see the information they are looking for quickly, they can move forward. If the preview page doesn't meet their needs, they can preview another option."

The study also finds that 51 percent of Internet subscribers use Google as their primary search engine -- up 8 percentage points from 2005. Yahoo! Search follows with 17 percent share of the market (down 4 percentage points from 2005), and AOL Search captures 9 percent of the market -- down 1 percentage point.

The 2006 Residential Online Service Customer Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 10,787 residential customers of Internet service providers nationwide.

Customer Satisfaction Index Scores: Primary Instant Messaging Services (Based on a 1,000-point scale) Yahoo! Messenger 791 MSN Messenger* 782 Windows Messenger* 766 Instant Message Average 766 Google Talk 746 Trillian 744 AIM/AOL Instant Messenger 743

*NOTE: MSN Messenger must be downloaded from the Microsoft Network Website in order to operate, while Windows Messenger is automatically built into a users operating system.

Customer Satisfaction Index Scores: Primary Search Engine/Search Function (Based on a 1,000-point scale) Dogpile 804 Ask.com 793 Google 784 Search Engine/Function Average 769 Yahoo! Search 756 AOL Search 742 MSN Search 736 Internet Explorer 734 About J.D. Power and Associates

Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is an ISO 9001-registered global marketing information services firm operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, consulting, training and customer satisfaction. The firm's quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually. J.D. Power and Associates is a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education, BusinessWeek and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation has more than 290 offices in 38 countries. Sales in 2005 were $6.0 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.

J.D. Power and Associates Media Relations Contacts: John Tews Syvetril Perryman Troy, Mich. Westlake Village, Calif. (248) 312-4119 (805) 418-8103 john.tews@jdpa.com syvetril.perryman@jdpa.com

No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the information in this release without the express prior written consent of J.D. Power and Associates. http://www.jdpower.com/corporate

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050527/LAF028LOGO-aPRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

J.D. Power and Associates

CONTACT: John Tews, +1-248-312-4119, john.tews@jdpa.com, or SyvetrilPerryman, +1-805-418-8103, syvetril.perryman@jdpa.com, both of J.D. Power andAssociates

Web site: http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/

Web site: http://www.jdpower.com/corporate

Source: PRNewswire

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