Microsoft Bing Grabs Search Share from Google, Yahoo

Microsoft in January nabbed 11.3 percent of the searches in the United States, grabbing market share from market leader Google and sinking search rival Yahoo. comScore claimed Google notched 65.4 percent of U.S. searches, down from 65.7 percent through December 2009. Yahoo claimed an even 17 percent of the market, down from its 17.3 percent share from December. Each month that Yahoo slides in search places greater importance on the company's deal to let Bing power its search results on the back end. In this arrangement, Microsoft will take ownership of Yahoo's search and boost Bing's search share to 28 percent of the market.

Microsoft recorded 11.3 percent of the searches in the United States for January, grabbing market share from market leader Google and sinking search rival Yahoo, according to comScore.

Google notched 65.4 percent of U.S. searches, down from an all-time high of 65.7 percent through December 2009, the researcher found. No. 2 search provider Yahoo claimed an even 17 percent of the market, down from its 17.3 percent share from December.

Taking the broader view, Microsoft gained 330 basis points of search since it launched Bing in June, an "impressive accomplishment," according to BroadPoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter.   

"Overall, the trends continue to be very strong for Bing, and remain very bad for Yahoo," Schachter wrote in a Feb. 9 research note. "Investors hoping that tonight's data would show stabilization for Yahoo will be disappointed...Unfortunately for Yahoo, we still do not see a bottom for its potential share loss."

January marked the twelfth consecutive month of share loss for the struggling search engine, which commanded 17.5 percent in November 2009, 18 percent in October and as much as 20.4 percent in November 2008.

Schachter added that while the impact to Yahoo's net revenue and earnings per share may be mitigated by the idea that the declines are coming from less profitable distribution queries, the downslide will continue to impinge the perception of the company.  more..........