(ACSI: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Portals and search engines lead all e-business categories, according to an American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey. An overall score of 77 for these sites represents a decline of 7 percent from a year ago. This decline is driven mostly by a drop for Google, which commands a large proportion of search engine and portal traffic. Despite Google’s 7-percent fall from an all-time high of 86 a year ago to a score of 80 this year, the dominant player in the search engine business still leads its largest competitors by a wide margin.

The drop for Google may be related to efforts to expand well beyond its core search engine business. With the introduction in recent years of services such as e-mail (Gmail), instant messaging (Google Talk), social networking (Google Buzz), and even a web browser (Google Chrome), Google now offers a full range of Internet services. But in trying to become all things to all people, Google seems to have encountered some of the pitfalls that portals and social media sites face, including concerns about privacy, which have led to an upswing in complaints about Google’s policies and practices during the past year. Recent investor reaction to Google has soured somewhat as well; during the past six months, the company’s share price has fallen nearly 30 percent, compared to an 8-percent drop for the market as a whole.

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