Google’s Search Share Drops in December

Google handled 56.3% of all U.S. search queries in December, which was a drop from November’s 57.7% share. Its searches per user also decreased from 40.8 in November to 37.9 in December.

The embattled Yahoo! retained its second place position on the list, but also saw a decline in its market share. In December, Yahoo! took in 17.7% of all searches in the U.S., compared to 17.9% in November. Its searches per user also dropped from 23.7 in November to 22.4 in December.

MSN/Windows Live experienced an increase in its search share, rising from handling 12.0% in November to 13.8% in December. Unlike Google and Yahoo!, MSN/Windows Live saw its searches per user increase from 27.8 to 31.7.

AOL finished fourth with 4.7% of all searches, up from 4.5% in November. Its searches per user hopped up from 14.7 in November to 15.2 in December.

Ask.com held on to its fifth place spot with 2.2% of all searches in December, a drop from November’s 2.7% share. Its searches per user dropped from 10.5 to 10.0.

My Web, Comcast, NexTag, AT&T Worldnet, and BizRate rounded out the top 10 list for December.

Approximately 4.1 billion queries were conducted through Google in December, a slight drop from November’s 4.3 billion queries.

So, is this finally the harbinger of Google’s imminent fall from grace that so many have been waiting for?

Absolutely not.

Sources:</strong

http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_080118.pdf

http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_071227.pdf