Google Poses Strong Challenge to Leader Baidu in China, Reports Keynote

SAN MATEO, Calif. & BEJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2006--Keynote
Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN):


-- Keynote Completes First Ever Study of Customer Experience and
Service Levels for Chinese Search Engines

-- Google's Popularity With U.S. Consumers Translates Well in China

-- Chinese Search Sites Match Global Standard for Technical Service Levels

-- Study Finds Close Race Among Alibaba/Yahoo!, Baidu, Google China and Sohu

-- Chinese Internet Users Report High Level of Frustration With Search
Experiences

-- Results of Annual Study to Help Providers Track and Improve
Performance in World's Fastest-Growing Search Market

A groundbreaking new study from Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN), The
Internet Performance Authority(R), shows Google in a strong position
to challenge Baidu in the Chinese search engine market despite the
distinct brand recognition and market share advantages Baidu currently
holds in that market. The study provides firm evidence that the
tremendous success Google has enjoyed in English-speaking markets
appears transferable to the rapidly growing Chinese market. With
billions of investment dollars riding on Chinese search in both the
U.S. and Chinese stock markets and with the search leaders themselves
in the U.S. and China forming alliances with and against each other as
they aggressively jockey for position, the study's implications are
far-reaching.

The Keynote study showed that Chinese consumers, once they are exposed
to Google, have an overwhelmingly positive search experience on the
site and generally prefer that site as compared to competitors in the
market. Baidu is currently the preferred search engine brand of 48% of
Internet users, according to the China Internet Network Information
Center (CNNIC).

For the customer experience component of the study, Keynote examined
1,200 Chinese consumers as they searched and performed relevant tasks
on leading Chinese search sites and then benchmarked the sites in more
than 250 categories including those for news, image, product and music
search. For the service level portion of the study, Keynote took more
than 13,000 measurements of each site's responsiveness and reliability
from different geographical regions of China over a four-week period
from mid-November to mid-December 2005.

The Alibaba/Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO), Baidu (Nasdaq:BIDU), Google
(Nasdaq:GOOG) and Sohu/Sogou (Nasdaq:SOHU) search sites were included
in the study. Keynote has conducted similar studies in North America,
where Google and Yahoo! are the clear market leaders both in terms of
market share and user experience. Similarly, Keynote has committed to
conducting an annual study on search in China, which will be
particularly important in order to track user preferences and
technical performance over time in a dynamic and fast-changing market.

Google is a Winner Among Chinese Consumers and is Poised to Capture
Market Share

"Baidu holds a clear lead in the Chinese market in terms of usage and
brand recognition," said Dr. Bonny Brown, director of research and
public services for Keynote. "However, we see that Chinese consumers
really like the overall Google experience better. Eventually, this
promises to translate into increased market share, particularly given
Google's strong resources and focus on the market."

Google topped the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings, an aggregate
ranking of the consumer appeal of leading Chinese search engines based
on an analysis of the 250 metrics measured during the study. In fact,
Google outperformed its competitors in 11 of the 13 business success
drivers measured in the study, including those for general search,
news search and image search. But Alibaba/Yahoo! and Baidu were close
competitors with Google in more than half of the 13 business success
driver categories studied. Baidu ranked highest with consumers in the
music search category, while Alibaba/Yahoo! was first for help and
instructions.

Keynote Customer Experience Study
Leading Search Engines by Category
----------------------------------------------------------------------
General Search Image Search News Search Music Search
Quality Quality Quality Quality
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Google Google Google Baidu
----------------------------------------------------------------------


In general, consumers saw Google's search results as more relevant to
their searches than those of other leading search engines. In fact,
68% of consumers that participated in the study described Google as a
"high quality" search site as compared to 61% who described Baidu and
Alibaba/Yahoo! this way.

This advantage in perceived search quality and experience translates
into consumers being more likely to make Google their primary search
engine, return to the site for a future search and/or begin using the
Google search tool bar.

"The Keynote study clearly shows that the success Google has had with
consumers in North America is transferable to the Chinese market,"
said Dr. Brown. "A positive search experience has universal
characteristics. Baidu is in a strong position because of its market
share, and only needs to perform at parity with Google to hold that
share."

Chinese Consumers Frustrated with Search Engine Results, Ads

In general, consumers interacting with Chinese search engines
experienced more frustrations with their search experience than did
consumers in North America. The leading frustrations of Chinese
consumers were with duplication of results (50%), search results not
being ranked well (43% expressing this frustration) and results being
out of date (36%). Chinese consumers also expressed dissatisfaction
with search results on some sites being too cluttered (37% expressing
this frustration) and with ads or sponsored results being distracting
them from actual search results (35%).

Google's strengths in the general market -- simplicity of design,
strong perceived results relevance and unobtrusive advertising -- are
also its strength in the Chinese market and key factors in its appeal
to consumers.

"Those sites that are developing in the Chinese market need to focus
more on the simplicity of design and clear presentation of search
results. They need to also be cautious about too much advertising for
short term revenue versus less obtrusive advertising and long term
market share potential," said Brown.

The appeal of the search site's homepage actually has the biggest
impact on consumers' perceptions and intentions for future usage.
Here, Google and Yahoo! also outpace their Chinese competitors because
of the simplicity of design.

"Homepage appeal and design may sound like something quite simple, but
it is extremely impactful to the customer experience," said Brown.

China Search Engine Industry Matches Global Technical Standard

In terms of service levels, Google had the industry's best
reliability, indicating its site was highly available and experienced
little or no downtime. In general, the Chinese search engine industry
is highly technically reliable with the sites being available 99.5% of
the time, a figure on par with the U.S. market.

Site Reliability Leader Site Responsiveness Leader
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Google Baidu
99.8% Reliability .35 Second Average
----------------------------------------------------------------------


"In both the U.S. and in China the search engine industries are
setting the pace for Internet reliability and responsiveness," said
Ben Rushlo, senior manager of professional services with Keynote. "In
fact, the Chinese search engine market really sets the global
technical standard, edging out even the U.S. market in terms of site
responsiveness."

Baidu set the industry standard in terms of site responsiveness; an
indication of how fast a site was in returning results, among other
areas.

Alibaba/Yahoo! ranked second overall in service level performance.

"Most of the leading search sites excel in responsiveness with no
notable slow downs during peak usage periods," said Rushlo. "At these
speeds consumers will not note a significant difference between any of
the leading sites."

Although the Google site is hosted in the U.S. and may be expected to
have slower responsiveness, because of the simplicity of their design,
they remain highly competitive despite a technical disadvantage. And
although the sites developed in the Chinese market are heavily loaded
visually, they are not technically heavy, excelling in the
responsiveness category.

The Keynote Customer Experience and Service Level Rankings for Search
Engine Sites (China) provides in-depth competitive analysis of the
search engine industry and contains hundreds of additional data
points, as well as a detailed analysis of study findings. For an
abstract reviewing the study visit:

http://www.keynote.com/downloads/cem/Keynote_China_Final.pdf

Customer Experience Management

Keynote's customer experience management (CEM) services offer both
competitive intelligence studies and custom engagement services
examining consumer attitudes and behavior on the Web. To learn more
about Keynote's CEM solutions, visit:
http://www.keynote.com/solutions/customer_experience_management.html

Service Level Management

Keynote's service level management (SLM) solutions provide enterprises
with the tools to align IT and e-business goals. To learn more about
Keynote's SLM solutions, visit:
http://www.keynote.com/solutions/service_level_management.html

About Keynote

Founded in 1995, Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN) is the worldwide leader
in services that improve online business performance and
communications technologies. Keynote helps approximately 2,300
corporate customers and 13,000 individual subscribers become "the best
of the best" online. The business premise supporting Keynote's mission
is: "Online businesses can't manage what they don't measure." As an
independent and trusted third-party, Keynote provides IT and marketing
executives with unbiased benchmarking data, competitive analysis and
operational metrics from the customer perspective. This data measures
service levels and customer experience of Web sites, broadband
services and mobile communications.

Known as The Internet Performance Authority(R), Keynote manages a
market-leading infrastructure of 1,600+ measurement computers and
mobile devices in over 114 locations and 66+ metropolitan areas
worldwide that assess service levels and a panel of over 160,000
consumers who participate in interactive Web site tests that assess
user experience. These online user experience tests capture customer
attitude and behavior to answer the critical "why" behind the "what".
Keynote's geographically distributed measurement services, on-site
monitoring appliances, competitive intelligence and custom studies
ensure that its customers outpace their competitors in online service
levels and overall user experience.

Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and
can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at
650-403-2400.

Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are
registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are
the property of their respective owners. (C) 2006 Keynote Systems,
Inc.