Google Claims Top Spot Among Search Sites For Customer Satisfaction

The newly released annual e-business report, according to the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) - saw Google (GOOG) come out on top with a score of 86 out of 100.

The report, which measures customer satisfaction with search engines, portals and online news and information sites, according to ForeSee results - registered an increase of 6% in the e-business sector, scoring 79.3 on ACSI’s 100-point scale.

In the Website category - based on interviews conducted on approx. 3,000 customers, Google got 86% customer satisfaction rating for 2008. The Mountain View, California-based co., soared 10.3% from last year as it continues its successful transformation from a search engine to a full-service portal. It claimed the top spot for portals and search engines while scoring the highest for any service company in all of ACSI.

Meanwhile, Yahoo (YHOO) after a promising rise in 2007, now trails Google at the number 2 spot after registering a 3% decline to 77. Yahoo’s drop isn’t that surprising, given the distraction of the Microsoft (MSFT) takeover bid. MSN’s score was flat at 75 followed by Ask.com with 74, slipping 1.3%. AOL came in at 69, and that is 3% increase from last year, but still 17 points below Google and eight points behind closest portal competitor Yahoo.

A second category measuring news and information sites shows that not much has changed in terms of customer satisfaction for big news sites: MSNBC.com (76), ABCNews.com (75), NYTimes.com (75), CNN.com (73), and USAToday.com (73).