Search engine wars
According to comScore, Google is still the top search engine with 65.9 percent of all use in December, up 0.5 percent from November, and after a rise in November, Microsoft Bing is relatively unchanged for the month, while Yahoo! is down 0.6 percent. Microsoft Bing and Yahoo! continue to be neck in neck at 15 percent of search volume each and Bing is slowly rising in popularity, but it should be said up front that Bing powers Yahoo! search, so technically, the two together account for one in three web searches which is still half of Google.
The data from comScore does not account for mobile search or Google’s Instant feature which is why other sources differ regarding search share. StatCounter reported in December that Google accounts for 80 percent of market share for search and Bing and Yahoo having roughly 10 percent each.
Market share for these three companies will continue to shift as mobile use rises and which smartphone a user has dictates what the default search mechanism is. Additionally, partnerships of each service will dictate their growth as their services are integrated into other products.
As we said last month, the second place search engines are gaining ground, but it will likely be several years before they usurp enough market share to become the most popular search engine, if that happens at all. Google has been the default search for most people for many years and continues to be top of mind for search.
We recently asked our Facebook fans what they most frequently use Google search for and the most common answer was “everything,” spelling success for this mega search engine for some time to come, especially with this week’s announcement of Google+ photos, updates and circles being integrated directly into Google Search results.
