Google starts to lose search share

gallery

The latest research on the search engine market has shown Google's share slipping over the last month, ending an eleven month run of consecutive gains.

The research, by analysts Comscore Networks, found that in July Google accounted for 43.7 per cent of search engine use, one per cent down on June but still up nearly ten points on this time last year. Yahoo showed modest growth, up a few percentage points to 28.8 per cent, but is still down on last year's share.

"Americans conducted 6.3 billion searches online in July, down 2 per cent versus last month, reflecting seasonal declines typically seen in July," said the report's authors.

"Growth in search query volume on an annual basis remains strong, rising 30 percent since July 2005."

In third place for July was MSN Search, with 12.8 per cent market share.

The research also had good news for Google and Yahoo over toolbar searches, with the two hosting more than 95 per cent of searches from within the browser toolbar coming from the two companies, 50.3 per cent and 46.2 per cent respectively.

Google in particular has been forging partnerships with the aim of making its browser search box ubiquitous. At the start of the month it signed a distribution deal with RealNetworks to distribute its software and a similar deal was struck with Adobe in June.

Email to a friend

Print this page