Share Wars: Google, Yahoo, and Bing Square Off Again for Market Share

ESCONDIDO, Calif., July 15 /PRNewswire/ -- According to recently-released data from industry sources, Google's market share dropped yet again while that of Bing and Yahoo! continued to climb. However, upon closer inspection, Google is still safely in the lead, at least for the foreseeable future.

Google's market share percentage dropped 1.1% from May to June 2010, while Bing and Yahoo! each gained 0.6%. Is this a cause of concern for the leading search giant?  Most likely not. Google still holds a significant 62.6% of search market share for June. Furthermore, questions arise over whether Bing and Yahoo! should be allowed to include in their search data the activity generated by photo slideshows and other contextual searches. This type of online action is not true "search" activity, and often a user flipping through the photos does not realize their click counted as a search for information. However, those clicks are totaled into the overall search data, whether we like it or not.

All three search engines seemed to fare well in terms of search volume this month.  When we look at the overall search volume, which increased from May to June, Google actually increased in sheer volume of searches by 134 million, or up 1.3%.  Bing increased by 152 million, or 7.3%, and Yahoo! increased by 206 million, or 6.6%.  So, it appears everyone was a winner in terms of volume.  Industry experts have been speculating what the upcoming merger between Bing and Yahoo! might do in terms of changing overall search volume and market share, but their combined volume is not likely to overtake Google, at least not any time soon.

One interesting bit of data that is not included in these numbers is the increasing number of mobile searches performed each day.  Although mobile traffic data is not yet figured in to total market share statistics, search engines are well-aware of users' tendencies and are increasingly interested in promoting mobile search.  According to Titan SEO's Parry Kuhn, "We are seeing close to 10% of Google's total search traffic coming from mobile phones.  Mobile search is only going to grow from here."

What can businesses take away from this?  Namely, that search volume overall is increasing, as is search on different platforms and in different types of media.  A company and their SEO agency following these trends will have a significant advantage over the competition.

Contributed by Amanda Finch, VP Operations, Titan SEO, Inc.

CONTACT:  Amanda Finch, 1-800-658-7511, [email protected]

SOURCE Titan SEO, Inc.