Google Captures 63 Percent Market Lead Over Yahoo, Microsoft San Francisco — Google Inc. further claimed its dominance by seizing an already wide lead in the U.S. search engine market grew from 61.9 percent to 63.0 percent share in August, its biggest monthly gain in five months, according to latest figures from market research specialist comScore Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace Friday.
comScore reported that in August 2008, Americans performed 11.7 billion core searches, virtually unchanged from July, as Google Sites continues to gain market share of 1.1 percentage over the month, growing its already wide lead over distant rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft.
In fact the most interesting trend is that Google’s gains came only at the expense of the industry’s silver and bronze medalists. Yahoo Inc, the No. 2 player in the U.S. Web search market came in second in August at 19.6 percent, down 0.9 percent from July, while Microsoft, the No. 3 U.S. player, garnered 8.3 percent of traffic in August, down 0.6 percent from previous month, according to comScore Inc.
IAC InterActiveCorp.’s Ask.com increased 0.3 percent to maintain its fourth-place position while Time Warner Inc.’s AOL inched up 0.1 percent to 4.3 percent, according to August monthly data published by the market research firm said. Though, it is Yahoo! and Microsoft who are the major market share losers on the list, going from commandeering a combined 29.4% of the searches in July to a more modest 27.9% slice last month.
August 2008 U.S. Core Search Rankings:
| comScore Core Search Report* August 2008 vs. July 2008 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch 2.0 |
|||
| Core Search Entity | Share of Searches (%) | ||
| Jul-08 | Aug-08 |
Point Change
Aug-08 vs. Jul-08 |
|
| Total Core Search |
100.0%
|
100.0%
|
NA
|
| Google Sites |
61.9%
|
63.0%
|
1.1
|
| Yahoo! Sites |
20.5%
|
19.6%
|
-0.9
|
| Microsoft Sites |
8.9%
|
8.3%
|
-0.6
|
| Ask Network |
4.5%
|
4.8%
|
0.3
|
| AOL LLC |
4.2%
|
4.3%
|
0.1
|
* Figures are based on five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. The figure excludes searches conducted for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.
The falling market share of Yahoo and Microsoft does not speak well for their attempts to invigorate their online services and brands. Once Yahoo! disbelievingly rejected the offer, it sealed its fate as executives began to defect in droves.
Certainly the reality is contrary. Microsoft’s failed attempt to acquire Yahoo earlier this year was part of its struggle in trying to catch up with Google and belief that Yahoo would bring it valuable engineering resources. Nonetheless, a successful merger between the two hardheaded Google chasers would have helped. Cyber surfers would have interpreted it as the creation of a more powerful company with a best of breed search solution.
Google’s increasing share of Web search and, by extension, its even bigger role in the related market for Web search advertising has compelled rivals and some industry trade groups to complain to competition regulators in the United States and Europe.
Other remarkable data were a 3 percent rise in queries on Google’s YouTube video service and a 9 percent increase in searches on MySpace, the social-networking site owned by Fox Interactive Media. Facebook saw an 8 percent rise in searches, according to comScore.
These measures depend heavily on online enrollment methods dismissed by more traditional pollsters, and the company was criticized several months ago for a separate report on paid search clicks, which relies on a similar panel as the data on search market share.
Lehman Brothers analyst Douglas Anmuth said the report suggested that Google’s strength in search is intact, and the company remains a top pick.
Google shares rose $24.59, or 5.9 percent, to close Thursday at $439.08.