In an interview last week, brand guru Al Ries told PR NEWS that Yahoo was running laps around other Internet search engine brands, and he was right - sort of. Yahoo outpaced competitors such as
Excite, HotBot and AltaVista (second, third and fourth, respectively) as the search engine of choice among participants in the latest customer loyalty index compiled by the research firm Brand Keys. The
study polled consumers on their relationships with 129 brands in 24 categories to determine which products or services they'll be most likely to use over the next 18-24 months.
But while Yahoo may be king in the loyalty arena, it is no longer king of the popularity contest, according to the latest numbers from Nielsen Netratings. While the portal once claimed supremacy as
the most trafficked Web site in the world, it has since been eclipsed by MSN.com, which boasted more than 19 million users in the U.S. in May.
(Brand Keys, 212/532-6028; MSN (Waggener Edstrom), 503/443-7000)