Google lost US search market share on both a month-over-month and year-over-year basis in August 2010, according to data from Compete.
Bing Slowly Grows
Google retained a still-dominant 70.1% share of the US search market in August 2010, accounting for 10.26 billion of 14.65 billion queries. This share percentage was down 3.8% from 72.9% in July 2010 and 3.4% from 72.6%. Volume dropped 1.8% from 10.46 billion in July 2010 but actually grew 1.4% from 10.13 billion in August 2009.
As a result of a new agreement where Bing powers Yahoo searches, Compete is now tracking Bing and Yahoo search queries under the heading “Bing-powered.” Bing-powered searches accounted for 26% of the US search market, with 3.8 million queries.
However, splitting the combined Bing-powered search entity into Bing and Yahoo, it becomes clear that Bing is gaining individual popularity while Yahoo is losing individual popularity. Bing’s 12.4% August 2010 share grew 17% from 10.6% in July 2010 and 37.8% from 9% in August 2009, two months after its June 2009 official launch. Meanwhile, Bing’s query volume grew 20% month-over-month and 45.5% year-over-year.
In contrast, Yahoo’s 13.5% August 2010 share only grew 3% from 13.1% in July 2010 and dropped 12.3% from 15.4% a year earlier. Yahoo’s volume grew 5.9% month-over-month but dropped 7.7% year-over-year.
Google Loses Unique Visitors, Gains Queries per Visitor
Google attracted 154 million unique visitors in August 2010, down 3.1% from 159 million month-over-month and 11% from 173 million year-over-year. Yahoo and Bing both experienced much milder fluctuations in unique visitor.
However, the average number of queries performed by each unique Google visitor grew to 67 in August 2010, up 1.3% from 66 in July 2010 and 13% from 59 in August 2009. Google enjoys a substantial lead in this category, as Bing trails a distant second with an average of 29 monthly searches per unique visitor (up 16% month-over-month and 38.1% year-over-year).
Yahoo follows Bing with an average of 22 monthly searches per unique visitor (up 5.9% month-over-month but down 8.1% year-over-year).
Nielsen: Bing Search Share Rises 30% from ’09
MSN/Windows Live/Bing Search held a 13.9% share of US searches in August 2010, narrowly beating Yahoo, according to search data tracked using different metrics by The Nielsen Company. Yahoo slipped to third place with a 13.1% share. From July 2010, MSN/Windows Live/Bing Search increased its share 2% from 13.65%, while Yahoo’s share dipped 8% from 14.3%.
Nielsen also showed Google holding 65.1% search share in August 2010, up 1% both month-over-month and year-over-year.
