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Desktop Search: Google May Have Peaked Last Year According To comScore

Google down nearly 4 points vs its high of 67.6 percent share last year.

Greg Sterling on September 25, 2015 at 8:52 pm

Late this afternoon comScore released its monthly report on US desktop search market share. Google controlled 63.8 percent of all PC search volume in August. Microsoft (Bing) had 20.6 percent and Yahoo saw 12.7 percent.

Bing was up a fraction of a point at Google’s apparent expense, while Yahoo was flat. Month over month Google is only off 0.2 percent. However the company’s desktop search share is down nearly 4 points vs. a year ago when it was 67.6 percent. Google may thus have “peaked” on the desktop.

The measurement firm said that there were 17.6 billion PC-based searches in August. Google saw 11.3 billion of them. We must conclude then that there were at least that many mobile queries, given Google’s previous statement in May that mobile queries had overtaken search volumes on the PC.

According to StatCounter Google controls nearly 90% of mobile search in the US. Yahoo had just over 7 percent and Bing roughly 4 percent of mobile volumes. StatCounter may not be an entirely precise data source in this case; although the gaping mobile chasm between Google and its rivals is undoubtedly accurate.

Postscript: I spoke yesterday with comScore informally about this and the company said that this may actually be a by-product of some of the changes in default search deals and their impact rather than any Google “peaking.”

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+.