Google the Biggest Rankers on the Net?

An audience-measurement business is raising competitors' hackles by claiming its new service provides more accurate data. But the company's conclusion that Google leads the search site pack, with Yahoo close behind, is unlikely to provoke controversy.

The service, qSearch, was unveiled on Monday by ComScore Media Metrix, a consulting unit of ComScore Networks that specialises in consumer behaviour. The service examines search queries entered into 25 portals and search engines by members of a pool of 1.5 million international Web surfers recruited through random phone-digit dialling and direct marketing techniques.

ComScore said the service would bring new accuracy to the task of measuring what consumers are searching for online. It criticised competitors for evaluating search sites through indirect measurements like visitor counts, citing data that shows that only 64 percent of people who visit a portal or search site wind up actually searching there in any given month.

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