Google / MySpace search stats big, but misleading
While I don't at all discount the fact that MySpace's overall traffic will lead to subsequent traffic for pretty much any service integrated into the service's site, I think the figures mentioned in this article by MediaPost's Shankar Gupta, referencing Hitwise data recently published, are slightly misleading, when looked at based purely on numbers.
Let's note what the "default" search is on MySpace's site when a user is logged in, or not. It's "The Web." I'd gladly take a wager that the average MySpace user or visitor is there to search MySpace for people they know, etc., not primarily to search the Web. Sure, the option should be there, but the default is definitely getting more people through to Google than would probably have happened were the radio button switched to "MySpace," IMHO.
People may indeed be interacting with the search results and ads when they click through because a) they find what they want in the MySpace-related search results, or just in the fact that people's behavior can be very peculiar when they end up in a batch of search results rather than what they thought they were going to be searching in the first place. I've got to say that I've clicked the "Search" button no less than a dozen times on MySpace when I meant to look just within that system, without changing the option - have you?
[MP link via MarketingVOX]
