Study: Google Search Share Slips Below 90% In The UK In October

Only 89.33% of internet searches in the UK were conducted on Google sites last month, according to Experian Hitwise. It’s the first time in the last five years that Google search market share in the UK has ever dipped below 90%.

While Google’s share dropped, other players — especially Microsoft’s Bing — picked up market share. Bing grew to encompass 4.71% of all searches, which was a 2012 peak for the engine. Experian Hitwise suspects that October’s launch of Windows 8 — which uses Bing as the default search engine — may have been a factor in Bing’s share increase.

Yahoo sites and Ask sites, along with other search engines, grew share in October, as compared to the previous month.

Needless to say, Google still has a commanding lead in search in the UK. Experian Hitwise said 18 times more searches are conducted on Google sites than on all other search engines combined.