comScore: Bing, Ask & Yahoo Grow Slightly, Google Slips

On Wednesday we reported on Hitwise data showing Google’s search share declining for the “fourth straight month.” However the firm has always shown Google with the greatest share vs. rival metrics firms (comScore, Nielsen, Compete).

Yesterday comScore published its March search numbers to clients and they were subsequently released in the financial analyst notes that routinely go out. The formal comScore press release should be out later today. In the meantime the data appear to directionally confirm what Hitwise is seeing at a high level: Google lost some share, Yahoo, Ask and Bing gained slightly. Here are the figures:

• Google: 65.2 percent
• Yahoo: 16.9 percent
• Bing: 11.7 percent
• Ask: 3.8 percent
• AOL: 2.5 percent

Below are the February comScore numbers for comparison:

The research note I saw alludes to a change in comScore’s methodology that may have affected the figures. We’ll learn more about that, I suppose, later today when the company’s press release comes out.

The big takeaway from my point of view is that Google may have reached a kind of de facto ceiling in the US market (at least on the PC).