According to the latest figures from Experian Hitwise, Bing gained the most market share in June, though it still remains stuck in third place. Bing is also showing off market-leading growth in the now-hotly contested arena of verticals.
Google claimed 71.65 percent of the U.S. search market in June, down 1 percent from its 72.17 percent share in May. Yahoo was second with 14.37 percent of the market, down less than a percent from its 14.43 percent share in May.
Bing followed with 9.85 percent of the market, up 7 percent from its 9.23 percent share in May, according to Experian Hitwise. Ask.com finished fourth with 2.19 percent of the market in June, up 2 percent from its 2.14 percent share in the previous month.
Google was far and away the biggest driver of traffic to the four major search verticals in June: automotive (22.91 percent, up 9 percent year-over-year), health (31.22 percent, down 8 percent), shopping (19.89 percent, up 13 percent) and travel (29.88 percent, up 4 percent).
Yahoo was a distant second in all verticals: automotive (4.51 percent, up 8 percent year-over-year), health (4.85 percent, down 18 percent), shopping (3.93 percent, up 10 percent) and travel (4.44 percent, down 9 percent).
Bing was third in each vertical: automotive (3.09 percent, up 197 percent year-over-year), health (4.22 percent, up 94 percent), shopping (2.81 percent, up 199 percent) and travel (3.40 percent, up 162 percent).
Though it lagged behind Google and Yahoo in all four verticals, Bing clearly displayed the hottest growth in each, a finding that is sure to grab the attention of those keenly following the verticals race that Bing and Google have become engaged in.
A few weeks ago, Bing unveiled a robust entertainment-focused section of its site. It also has a strong handle on the travel vertical, thanks to its Farecast-based offering. However, with Google's recent acquisition of ITA software, a flight-information platform, it's clear that verticals is an emerging battleground for the two search engines.
Experian Hitwise also found that, in general, longer queries saw slight upticks in clicks during June.
One-word queries received 22.28 percent of all clicks in June, down 1 percent from May, while two-word queries got 23.42 percent of all clicks, virtually unchanged from the previous month.
Three-word queries got 20.38 percent of clicks, down 1 percent; four-word queries got 14.36 percent of clicks, up 1 percent; five-word queries got 8.61 percent of clicks, up 1 percent; six-word queries got 4.70 percent of clicks, up 1 percent; seven-word queries got 2.58 percent of clicks, up 1 percent; and queries eight or more words in length got 3.67 percent of clicks in June, down 1 percent.
Sources:
http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/press-releases/google-searches-jun-10/
http://gigaom.com/2010/07/09/after-ita-where-might-google-look-next-for-structured-data/
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/07/how_googles_buy_of_ita_signals_where_its_headed_in_real_estate.html
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