August Search Market Share Grinds To Standstill, Though Google & Bing Grow In Volume

Today comScore released US search market share figures for August. I’m tempted to say, “Nothing to see here folks, move on.” All the numbers are basically flat compared with July.

There was almost no movement across sites; everybody’s in the same position as last month.

A year ago Google’s share of the US search market was 66.4 percent. Microsoft controlled 15.9 percent and Yahoo had a 12.8 percent share. Yahoo essentially gave up share to partner Microsoft while Google has grown its share.

Overall search volume is down slightly from July. However it’s up about 2 billion queries in the aggregate over August 2012. Both Google and Bing have more volume than a year ago and Yahoo is almost exactly where it was.

Postscript: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer told an audience at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference that Yahoo usage is up across key properties including search. Mayer said the company has 800 million monthly active users (not including Tumblr) with 350 monthly users on mobile.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.