I got a request today to update the chart I posted back in February comparing the online audience for Yahoo! Search and Google.com given yesterday's announcement about a advertising deal between the two. Last time I did the analysis I found an age gap - with Yahoo! Search users skewing younger than Google.com users - and also found that Google users tend to be bigger spenders online. The age gap has closed slightly so that Yahoo! Search users still do tend to skew younger than Google but by a smaller margin than in February.

The following figure summarizes the audience strengths and weaknesses for the two search engines. Visits by MOSAIC Group to Search.Yahoo.com are plotted on the y-axis and to Google.com on the x-axis. For example, the top left hand box indicates unique strengths for Yahoo! Search, in that they are groups that are over-indexed relative to the online population on Yahoo! Search but under-indexed on Google.com. The bigger the bubble the higher the propensity to have spent $500 online (based on offline data collected by Experian).

As you can see Google's relative audience strengths - i.e. the groups over-indexed on Google.com relative to the online population - are those that are among the most likely to have spent more than $500 online. This indicates that Google users are more likely to be big online spenders.

Last time I posted this data there were some calls for further definitions of the groups on the chart. More details on how we come by this data is available in the original post and here's a brief description of these groups to elaborate on the titles in my chart.

Affluent Suburbia: The wealthiest households in the U.S. living in exclusive suburban neighborhoods enjoying the best of everything that life has to offer.
Upscale America: College-educated couples and families living in the metropolitan sprawl earning upscale incomes providing them with large homes and very comfortable and active lifestyles.
Small-town Contentment: Middle-aged, upper-middle-class families living in small towns and satellite cities with moderate educations employed in white-collar, blue-collar and service professions.
Blue-collar Backbone Budget-conscious, young and old blue-collar households living in older towns working in manufacturing, construction and retail trades.
American Diversity: A diverse group of ethnically mixed singles and couples, middle-aged and retired with middle-class incomes from blue-collar and service industry jobs.
Metro Fringe Racially mixed, lower-middle-class clusters in older single-family homes, semi-detached houses and low-rise apartments in satellite cities.
Remote America: A mix of farming and small industrial rural communities with outdoor oriented lifestyles living primarily in America’s heartland.
Aspiring Contemporaries: Young, mostly single, ethnically diverse, online active households living in new homes or apartments with discretionary income to spend on themselves.
Rural Villages and Farms Rural, middle-class married families and couples of varied ages, living and working in agricultural and mining communities.
Struggling Societies: Young minorities, students and single parents trying to raise families on low-level jobs in manufacturing, health care and food services.
Urban Essence: Young, single and single-parent minorities living in older apartments working at entry-level jobs in service industries.
Varying Lifestyles: Residents who primarily live in group quarters including students, military personnel and institution populations.

Heather Hopkins

Heather Hopkins is VP of Research for Hitwise UK. This piece was originally posted on Hitwise Analyst blog here.