Google regains ground in U.S. search market

by Elinor Mills September 19, 2006 1:40 PM PDT Follow @elinormills

Google, whose U.S. search market share slipped slightly in July, was back up in August, according to two providers of Web site statistics.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings figures released on Tuesday, Google has 50.2 percent of the U.S. search market. That's up from 49.2 percent in July (which had slipped slightly from 49.4 percent in June after nearly a year of monthly rises). Google had more than 3 billion search queries in August, the Nielsen/NetRatings statistics show.

Behind Google were Yahoo with 24 percent market share, MSN/Windows Live Search with 10 percent, AOL with 5.5 percent and Ask with 2.3 percent, Nielsen/NetRatings said.

ComScore Networks had a lower market share figure for Google for August, 44.1 percent, which was up from July's 43.7 percent (following June's 44.7 percent). According to comScore metrics, Yahoo had 28.7 percent market share, MSN had 12.5 percent, AOL had 5.6 percent, and Ask had 5.5 percent.