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Yahoo’s Mayer: “Our Search Share Has Declined” But She’s Optimistic About Opportunities

Matt McGee on October 16, 2013 at 12:01 am

Yahoo is making progress in a number of product areas under CEO Marissa Mayer, but search isn’t one of them — a fact that Mayer herself admitted during today’s Q3 earnings call.

Yahoo’s US share of the search market was just 11.3 percent in September, according to just-released comScore numbers — that ties Yahoo’s all-time low set back in July.

On the conference call today, Mayer essentially stated the obvious about Yahoo’s position in search:

“It is true that, over the past several years, our search share has declined. In terms of the search alliance, we’re trading share with Microsoft.”

But Mayer and Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman both put on an optimistic outlook for the future, saying they feel good about Yahoo’s opportunities, particularly in mobile search.

Earlier in the call, Mayer also touted some of Yahoo’s ongoing work in search. She said the company launched more than 100 search experiments in Q3 “to refine and enhance the search experience for users and advertisers.” She also talked up

Yahoo’s new search results page design and new mobile (iOS) search experience
Yahoo’s new search ad formats
two new search distribution deals with IAC Mobile and AVG International
the recently re-launched Yahoo Answers, saying that property has “seen a nice rise in engagement since the launch”

Mayer said the company will try to reverse its continuing declines in search: “We’re endeavoring to gain share. We’re designing new functionality, differentiating functionality. We’re doing direct display units that bring the content right to the user in search results.”

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.