Google June Search Share Drops From May 2008; Yahoo, Microsoft Gain

Fri. July 18, 2008; Posted: 06:30 PM

During June, online searchers in the U.S conducted 11.5 million core searches, up 7% from May 2008.

Google continued to top the list with 61.5% of the core search market share, compared to a share of 61.8% in the previous month. The internet search giant handled 7.10 billion requests in June, up 6% from 6.66 billion in May.

Online search market share of Yahoo improved 0.3% to 20.9% from 20.6% last month. Total searches conducted at Yahoo sites rose 9% to 2.42 billion from 2.22 billion a month earlier.

At third position, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) served 9.2% of the total searches in June, up 0.7% from 8.5% in May 2008. Search sites of the software major handled 1.06 billion queries during the month compared to 920 million in May.

The ASK Network served 501 million searches, representing 4.3% of the total core search conducted in June and up 3% from the previous month. June market share of AOL LLC edged down to 4.1% from 4.5% in the previous month. AOL handled 471 million searches in June compared to 486 million in May.

Google was again at the top of expanded search ranking in June with 9.60 billion searches, up 9% from 8.84 billion searches last month. Yahoo came in next with 2.57 billion searches, compared to 2.39 billion searches in the previous month. Microsoft served 1.07 billion searches, up 14% from 963 million a month earlier in the expanded search category.

Shares of Google dropped nearly 10% to finish the day's trading and further dropped in the extended session, trading at $480.00. MSFT closed Friday's trading down 6.03% and shed an additional 2 cents in after-hours, while Yahoo closed at $22.45, a gain of 0.04% from the previous close.

Interestingly, another researcher Hitwise said Google accounted for 69.17% of all U.S. searches in the four weeks ending June 28, 2008, while Yahoo Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each accounted for 19.62%, 5.46% and 4.17% respectively. Hitwise indicated another 42 search engines in the Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.70% of U.S. searches.

ComScore has been involved in tracking websites to help advertisers and publishers plan their online advertisements. Last month, when Google launched Ad Planner, its second free web audience measurement site, there were rumors in the market that the new Google product would grab a part of ComScore's market share.

SCOR closed Friday's trading session at $21.54, down 1.25%, on a volume of about 288 thousand shares. The stock has been moving in a range of $17.31-$42.00 for the past one year, with a three-month average volume of nearly 416 thousand shares.

For full details on Comscore Inc (SCOR) click here. Comscore Inc (SCOR) has Short Term PowerRatings of 1. Details on Comscore Inc (SCOR) Short Term PowerRatings is available at This Link.

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