Americans conducted 15.53 billion core searches in April 2010, a slight 1% increase from 15.43 billion core searches in March 2010, according to comScore qSearch data.
Yahoo Gains Market Share
Google Sites continued its dominance of the US core search market in April 2010, although its market share declined by less than a full percentage point, from 65.1% to 64.7%.
Second-place Yahoo Sites was the biggest beneficiary of Google Sites’ market share loss, increasing its market share from 16.9% to 17.7%. Microsoft Sites’ market share remained virtually flat as it retained third place with an 11.8% share, up from 11.7% the previous month. Ask Network and AOL LLC saw their market share remain virtually unchanged as they placed fourth and fifth for the month.
Yahoo Sites Gains Searches
Google Sites accounted for about 10 billion core searches in April 2010, essentially unchanged from its core search total in March 2010. However, second-place Yahoo Sites grew its core search total by 6% month-over-month, climbing from 2.6 billion core searches to 2.75 billion core searches. Third-place Microsoft Sites experienced more modest 1% month-over-month core search growth, rising from 1.8 billion core searches to 1.83 billion core searches.
Yahoo Sites’ core search growth came partially at the expense of fourth-place Ask Network and fifth-place AOL LLC. Ask’s core search total dropped 3%, from 593 million to 574 million, and AOL’s core search total fell 2%, from 380 million to 371 million.
Facebook Reverses Query Growth Trend
In the April 2010 analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Facebook.com, which has experienced dramatic search query growth in recent months, including 48% in March 2010, reversed that trend in April 2010. Facebook.com reported 624 million search queries, a 4% drop from 647 million the prior month. There were 23.66 billion total internet search queries in April 2010, down 1% from 23.87 billion in March 2010.
Google Sites led the search market with about 14 billion search queries, down 2% from 14.25 billion in March 2010. Yahoo Sites followed with 2.84 billion search queries, up 6% from 2.69 billion the prior month. Microsoft Sites held third place with moderate 1% growth, rising from 1.86 billion search queries in March 2010 to 1.88 billion in April 2010.
