By Ben Fox Rubin
Google Inc. (GOOG) slightly increased its dominant share of the
U.S. Internet-search market in May, as both Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and
AOL Inc. (AOL) saw their shares edge down, according to market
researcher comScore Inc. (SCOR).
Google's U.S. market share rose 0.2 percentage points to 66.7%
in May from April. Yahoo and AOL both saw their shares fall 0.1
percentage point to 13.4% and 1.5%, respectively. Microsoft Corp.
(MSFT) and IAC/InterActiveCorp.'s (IACI) Ask network saw their
shares remain flat, capturing 15.4% and 3% respectively.
Americans conducted 17.5 billion core search queries last month,
up from 17.1 billion in April. Google again ranked first, with 11.7
billion searches, followed by Microsoft, with 2.7 billion, and
Yahoo with 2.3 billion.
ComScore has shifted how it reports its data after Yahoo's
"contextual searches" skewed earlier results. The group measures
U.S. explicit core searches, which exclude contextual searches that
don't reflect any intent by users.
Write to Ben Fox Rubin at ben.rubin@dowjones.com