According to the most recent numbers released by comScore, Microsoft was the only one of the five major search engines to actually gain ground in June 2007. Even the almighty Google lost a few points during the summer month.
Still, Google Sites maintained its overwhelming lead by carrying out 49.5% of all U.S. search queries in June. This was a 1.2% decline from May, during which Google obliged 50.7% of all U.S. queries.
Yahoo! Sites lost 1.3% in June, during which the Web portal carried out 25.1% of all search queries in the U.S.
Microsoft Sites garnered 13.2% of all queries in the U.S. during June, indicating an impressive 2.9% increase from May’s 10.3% share.
Ask Network held onto its entire 5.0% share in June, reflecting no change from May.
Time Warner Network received 4.2% of all U.S. search queries in June, a 0.4% decrease from May’s 4.6% share.
In total, 8.0 billion online searches were conducted by American users in June, a 6% increase from May and a 26% jump from June of last year.
Google attracted 4.0 billion queries in June, while Yahoo! carried out 2.0 billion, Microsoft took care of 1.1 billion, Ask garnered 403 million, and Time Warner Network had 341 million queries.
Microsoft seems to have benefited greatly from its Live Search Club, which the company admits attributed to much of the increases it experienced during May and June for its Live Search. Live Search Club is a promotional site that offers users word games involving Live search results. The site also offers users rewards for accumulating enough tickets.
There have also been reports of users utilizing automated programs in order to accumulate tickets for prizes. Microsoft asserts that none of that traffic was included in their market share figures. Still, some wonder about the meaning (if any) behind Microsoft’s search share gains in the past two months.
Sources:
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1525
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/323725_msftsearch14.html
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