Today John Battelle noted what a plunge Google took on the stock market yesterday and in general through the current year. I thought it would be fun to look at Microsoft and Yahoo as well.

The chart above covers the past month and shows Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO), and Microsoft (MSFT) against the NASDAQ over the past month. Of the three, Google’s had the greatest decline, down 19.5 percent. Yahoo’s just behind at 18.5 percent, with Microsoft at about 12.5 percent. The NASDAQ overall is at 15.5 percent.

No doubt, it’s a drop — but rather than being Google-specific, it seems more tied to the overall decline in stock prices. That doesn’t negate the point John makes — that Googlers do watch the stock price, and the drop will concern many, especially those "underwater" with options to buy the stock at a price higher than it is currently trading.

The dollar figures for yesterday:

• Google: Opened at $562.03, closed at $584.35, up 4 percent. Currently: $566.81
• Yahoo: Opened at $19.29, closed at $19.86, up 3 percent. Currently: $19.75
• Microsoft: Opened at $31.54, closed at $31.96, up 1.3 percent. Currently: $31.82

Postscript: See Day 2: Search Stocks & Is Search Recession Proof? for a second day look.

Related Topics: Google: Business Issues | Microsoft: Business Issues | Yahoo: Business Issues

About The Author: Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series. He maintains a personal blog called Daggle (and maintains his disclosures page there). He can be found on Facebook, Google + and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan. See more articles by Danny Sullivan