ComScore: Google’s Search Engine Market Share Increased In September, Yahoo Down Another 0.6 Percentage Points

ComScore just published its latest U.S. search market numbers and things aren’t looking too good for Yahoo. Yahoo’s Bing-powered search lost another 0.6 percentage points and now has just 12.2 percent of the market. That’s down from 12.8 percent in August and 13 percent in July and June.

The networks that apparently profited from Yahoo’s dip are Google, which added another 0.3 percentage points and Ask, which is also up 0.3 percentage points. With this, Google now commands 66.7 percent of the U.S. search market and Ask 3.5 percent.

Microsoft’s Bing held steady last month at 15.9 percent in comScore’s rankings. In total, comScore reports, Bing powered just over a quarter (25.1 percent) of all U.S. searches in September.

TechCrunch parent company AOL is still the smallest of comScore’s top 5 search engines and came in at 1.8 percent last month, up 0.1 percentage points from August.

As far as total search volume goes, comScore says about 16.3 billion searches were conducted in September. That’s down about 4 percent from last month. Unsurprisingly, Yahoo also saw the largest drop here. The total number of searches on the site decreased by 9 percent.

Yahoo’s Troubles Continue

So far, Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer hasn’t announced any changes to the company’s strategy in the search market. If Yahoo wants to stay relevant in this business, though, Mayer will have to make some changes and do so sooner rather than later. Search brings in about a third of Yahoo’s revenue, and given Mayer’s background in search, she will likely institute some changes soon. For the time being, though, her focus seems to be more on PB&J than on improving Yahoo’s search.