Hitwise: Google’s Lead Growing, Searches Getting Longer

Google’s share of the U.S. search market continues to grow according to Hitwise data released today. (PDF download)

Google’s market share rose from 72.11% in February to 72.39% in March, while both Yahoo and Live Search saw declines. Year-over-year numbers are also in Google’s favor: It’s up 8% over March 2008, while Yahoo and Live Search are down 19% and 17%, respectively.

For what it’s worth, Ask.com shows an 8% increase between February and March.

Meanwhile, search queries continue to get longer. As we reported a couple months ago with data for January, searches of four words and up are on the rise, while 1- to 3-word searches are declining.

Hitwise says that trend has continued in February and March, and compared to March 2008, 7- and 8-word queries both saw double digit percent increases.

It’ll be interesting to see if Google’s recent rollout of local results on non-local queries will impact this trend. The change affects shorter queries the most, and many searchers are now likely to find what they want with short queries like “florists,” “restaurants,” and “lawyers.”