August Search Share: Bing Hits “All Time High”

The early August search market share data is out from financial analysts ahead of the official comScore release. That official release will likely be later this afternoon (now updated, see postscript). Yahoo is down once again while partner Bing has hit “an all time high” according to one analyst. Google lost some share (0.4 percent) […]

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The early August search market share data is out from financial analysts ahead of the official comScore release. That official release will likely be later this afternoon (now updated, see postscript). Yahoo is down once again while partner Bing has hit “an all time high” according to one analyst.

Google lost some share (0.4 percent) in August, while Bing gained and Yahoo declined by an equivalent amount (0.2 percent). Strangely, AOL also gained (0.2 percent).

Here are the August comScore numbers:

  • Google: 66.4 percent (66.8 percent in July)
  • Bing: 15.9 percent (15.7 percent in July)
  • Yahoo: 12.8 percent (13.0 percent in July)
  • Ask: 3.2 percent (3.1 percent in July)
  • AOL: 1.7 percent (1.5 percent in July)

The combined Microsoft-Yahoo Search Alliance market share remained flat at 28.7 percent however.

The Search Alliance share has been either flat or slightly down consistently since it came into being. At that time it was about 29 percent and really hasn’t budged, largely because Yahoo’s share has declined as Bing’s has grown. The big question is whether Yahoo CEO (and former Google executive) Marissa Mayer is going to do anything to stop the bleeding.

The following chart compares US search market share in August 2012 vs. August 2011.

Screen Shot 2012 09 12 At 6.58.27 AM

Data source: comScore

These figures don’t reflect mobile search numbers, which represent a growing share of overall query volume. Google currently enjoys a roughly 94 percent share in the US mobile search market.

Postscript: comScore has now released the official numbers:

Screen Shot 2012 09 12 At 1.25.11 PM


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Greg Sterling
Contributor
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

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