Google gained share vs. last month. However, the big news is that Bing is now firmly ahead of Yahoo in “explicit core search.” But using comScore’s expanded “total core search” definition Yahoo remains ahead of Bing.

Below are the official numbers; first explicit core search (no slideshows) and then total core search (including so-called “contextual search”):

Yahoo and Bing have now effectively changed places. Bing has taken share from Yahoo, while Google has been largely unaffected. Accordingly, the “search alliance” share of queries remains essentially flat at 29 percent.

Based on underlying comScore data, the report analyzes visits to the top five websites in several verticals: Media, Retail, Travel, Auto, Finance and Health. It doesn’t discuss the impact or relative position of Facebook at all, possibly because Facebook is not yet a public company.

Mahaney points out that Google’s retention of the position of top traffic referrer is an accomplishment in a marketplace that is so “fluid” and intensely competitive.

The report has a number of key findings, which I’ve distilled here:

Google ranked as the #1 source of traffic for 23 of the top 30 Websites. “By contrast, the #2 (Yahoo!) and #3 (Microsoft) influencers accounted for 11 percent and 6 percent of traffic to the top 30 Websites.”

Google’s “influence is [very slowly] slipping”: Mahaney said that “Google has gone from delivering 17 percent of all the traffic to the top 30 Websites in 2010 and 2011 to 16 percent in 2012.” The one vertical studied in which Google’s influence has waned considerably is Heath (see chart above).

Yahoo and Microsoft’s traffic is flat: the report said that “Yahoo!’s and Microsoft’s share of traffic “has remained essentially flat from 2010 to 2012.” This is regarded as a surprise on both counts.

Mahaney said that flat traffic is positive for Yahoo given the market’s perception of the company/site as a “deteriorating asset.” By contrast this is “arguably something of a negative surprise [for Microsoft] . . . given signs of Bing Search market share gains.”

Those figures made it appear that Google had gained share at Bing’s expense. It was Yahoo that lost share, however. Below are the official comScore “explicit core search” numbers, released earlier today:

I was told by earlier today that the error was comScore’s. However comScore says that the error came from the third party that published the numbers yesterday. The more expansive “total core search” data (with slideshows) still shows Yahoo ahead of Bing.

The numbers above don’t include mobile search query volumes, which are now as much as 20 percent (or more) in some categories and growing rapidly. Below are StatCounter data reflecting mobile (browser) search market share in the US.

Source: StatCounter

Google is much more dominant in mobile than on the PC (in terms of browser-based queries). However there’s considerable “search” volume that goes through smartphone apps that isn’t being captured in the aggregate by comScore or anyone else for that matter.

Recently comScore reported that for the first time more people are using apps than the mobile browser.

Android handsets now represent nearly 47 percent of the US smartphone market, while the iPhone is just under 30 percent. The comScore data doesn’t reflect iPod Touch or iPad devices.

The firm also said that 39 percent of the US mobile population owned smartphones. This stands in contrast to Nielsen’s 44 percent estimate, which puts the actual number at more than 100 million people.

What’s perhaps most interesting, however, about the data in the report is the fact that it shows (I believe for the first time) more people used apps than used the mobile browser.

The latest comScore numbers show Bing increasing its market share in November to an even 15 percent, while Yahoo’s dropped to 15.1 percent. Google holds 65.4 percent of the market, a small drop from October.

This is comScore’s “explicit” search measurement, which doesn’t include things like slideshows and certain Google Instant Search queries. It also doesn’t reflect mobile search queries.

For comparison to last year, comScore measured Google’s market share at 66.2 percent in November 2010, while Yahoo was at 16.4 percent and Bing at 11.8 percent.

ComScore hasn’t yet posted these numbers online, but we’ll update this post with a link when they do.

Postscript: Here are the official comScore numbers.

U.S. Internet users watched an all-time high of 42.6 billion videos during October, with YouTube accounting for 20.9 billion of those views — 49.1% of the total. ComScore credits YouTube/Google with an audience of just under 161 million unique viewers, almost triple the reach of Facebook, which was second with a little less than 60 million unique viewers.

ComScore says Google/YouTube also had the highest engagement with users averaging more than 7 hours of video each during the month.

Here’s a look:

Google: market share in October was 65.6%, down 0.7% from October 2010, but up from 65.3% in September.

Yahoo: 15.2% in October, down from 15.5% in September

Bing: 14.8% in October, up from 14.7% in September

So, comScore pegs the Bing-Yahoo combination at 30% overall in October. It was 30.2% in September and 30.9% in August.

All of the above are what comScore calls “explicit” searches — i.e., the numbers don’t include slideshow “searches” and other types of contextual search activity. If that activity is included, comScore says Google’s October market share jumps to 66.2% thanks to the inclusion of Instant Search activity.

(Stock image via Shutterstock.com. Used with permission.)

Last month, according to “Big Blue,” 11 percent of people visited a retail website on a mobile device. In particular the iPad will play a significant role in “mobile” purchase behavior. IBM said that “shoppers using an iPad will lead to more retail purchases more often per visit than other mobile devices.” IBM added that iPad conversion rates were 6.8 percent in the iPad vs. 3.6 percent for mobile devices overall.

Other recently holiday related mobile predictions and estimates include:

• Google saying that “44 percent of total searches for last minute gifts and store locator terms will be from mobile devices.”
• Performics said that “Google search clicks from mobile devices are now 14.2 percent of all search clicks” and expects paid clicks coming from mobile to grow to 17.3 percent this December

Separately today comScore released its latest US smartphone share data:

Smartphones represent 37 percent of all US mobile handsets according to comScore. However Nielsen says they’ve now reached 43 percent (and more than 50 percent for those under age 45). The Pew Internet Project says 42 percent of mobile subscribers have smartphones.

According to a recent study from Acquity Group, 37 percent of the “Internet Retailer Top 500″ companies now have a mobile site. Those that don’t will find they’ve missed an opportunity this holiday shopping season. Earlier this year Google said that 79 percent of its top advertisers didn’t have a mobile-optimized site.

Nielsen says that 43 percent of US smartphone owners have an Android handsets compared to 28 percent who own iPhones. These numbers are almost identical to comScore’s. We’ll see if holiday sales of the iPhone 4S change that in any way.

What’s most interesting about the data from Nielsen is the age-based segmentation they do. For those under 44 years old, smartphone penetration has now crossed the 50 percent threshold (54 percent). In fact for those in the 25-34 age category it stands at 62 percent.

If your target audience or prospect base is anyone under 45, know that more than half now own smartphones. Also understand that for some number of them — especially younger users — smartphones and tablets will be primary internet devices.

Google also sees mobile as a strategic front for social networking growth. The new version of Android (“Ice Cream Sandwich”) prominently features Google+.

The chart below shows comScore traffic estimates for mobile usage of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Facebook has many more mobile users than the other services, although I assume comScore underestimates the number of actual mobile users across the board.

For example, Twitter recently said it had 100 million active mobile users. It also said, “46 percent of active users make mobile a regular part of their Twitter experience.” That would mean 46 million mobile users at least for Twitter. If 60 percent of Twitter users come from outside the US we can crudely estimate that there are just under 20 million mobile Twitter users in the US.

Overall comScore says the mobile-social networking audience in the US is just over 70 million people. The total mobile internet audience is now over 100 million people in the US according to data from Nielsen.