Media influence and/or engagement are hot topics in today's ROI driven ad world, and when it comes to the top search engines Yahoo! is the overall #1 choice for most influential on purchase decisions and Google is number 4. The findings are from BIGresearch's latest Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMMVII), which surveyed over 15,000 respondents. "When you look at the impact of Internet Advertising on specific purchase decisions and not just click throughs, the impact of internet advertising is a different story," said Joe Pilotta, VP/Research at BIGresearch.

Influence of Internet Advertising on Purchase Decisions by Search Engine Preference
Electronics	Apparel/Clothing	Car/Truck	Grocery
1. Google	1. Yahoo!	1. MSN	1. AOL
2. Yahoo!	2. AOL	2. Yahoo!	2. Yahoo!
3. MSN	3. MSN	3. Google	3. Ask Jeeves
4. AOL	4. Google	4. Ask Jeeves	4. MSN
5. Ask Jeeves	5. Ask Jeeves	5. AOL	5. Google
Home Improvement	Telecom Services	Medicines	Eating Out
1. Yahoo!	1. Google	1. Yahoo!	1. Yahoo!
2. MSN	2. tie Yahoo!	2. Ask Jeeves	2. MSN
3. Ask Jeeves	tie MSN	3. AOL	3. tie Google
4. Google	4. AOL	4. MSN	tie AOL
5. AOL	5. Ask Jeeves	5. Google	5. Ask Jeeves

For example, the influence on electronics purchases showed Google #1 followed by Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and Ask Jeeves.

"If we tally the ranking of search engines' influence on category purchase decisions we find Yahoo! number 1 with a score of 13, with 1st or 2nd place finishes in every category, MSN number 2 at 21, AOL number 3 at 23, Google number 4 at 26 and Ask Jeeves number 5 at 32. Yahoo! can't be complacent, the how's and why's and synergies needed to predict impact, as we have seen, is the next step as our research has shown," said Pilotta.