June 10, 2008 8:42 AM PDT
Google ekes out more share gains in search
Google increased its market share of searches in the United States in May, rising from 67.9 percent share in April to 68.29 percent in May, analyst firm Hitwise reported Tuesday.
During the same period, Yahoo dropped from 20.28 percent to 19.95 percent and Microsoft dropped from 6.26 percent to 5.89 percent. Fourth-place Ask.com increased slightly from 4.17 percent to 4.23 percent, Hitwise said.
Search share is financially important because it means there are more opportunities to sell advertisements.
In the U.K., Google had 87 percent search share to Yahoo's 4.09 percent, Microsoft's 3.72 percent, and Ask.com's 3.07 percent.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
