Google rises, Yahoo drops in U.S. search market

11.10.2011
After slipping to a two-year low in August, Google inched back up in the U.S. search market.

In August, , which was the first time in two years the search engine had dipped below 65% of the market. However, Google was back above that benchmark in September, grabbing 65.3% of U.S. searches, according to a report out today from comScore, an Internet tracking company.

And Google might have grabbed some of that extra market share from rival Yahoo, which dropped from 16.3% in August to 15.5% in September. remained in third place, staying steady month-to-month at 14.7%, comScore said.

However, while staying above 65% is a benchmark for Google, it's insignificant in the actual market, according to Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst with ZK Research.

"Google didn't drop down much below the 65% mark," noted Kerravala. "It's only about half a percentage point. I don't see that as significant. And, frankly, anything over 50% is dominant share.... That half a percent drop was just noise."

Google and Bing since Bing arrived on the search scene about a year and a half ago. The competition has pushed each search service to develop new features, such as Google's new image and voice search tools, and real-time search from both services.