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comScore Releases December 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings
Jan 14, 2011 (03:01 PM EST)


RESTON, Va., Jan. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. Google Sites led the explicit core search market in December with 66.6 percent of searches conducted.

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U.S. Explicit Core Search

Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in December with 66.6 percent market share (up 0.4 percentage points), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 16.0 percent and Microsoft sites with 12.0 percent (up 0.2 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 3.5 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL LLC Network with 1.9 percent.

comScore Explicit Core Search Share Report*
December 2010 vs. November 2010
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch

Core Search Entity

Explicit Core Search Share (%)

Nov-10

Dec-10

Point Change

Total Explicit Core Search

100.0%

100.0%

N/A

Google Sites

66.2%

66.6%

0.4

Yahoo! Sites

16.4%

16.0%

-0.4

Microsoft Sites

11.8%

12.0%

0.2

Ask Network

3.6%

3.5%

-0.1

AOL LLC Network

2.0%

1.9%

-0.1





*"Explicit Core Search" excludes contextually driven searches that do not
reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.



More than 16.4 billion explicit core searches were conducted in December. Google Sites ranked first with nearly 11.0 billion searches, up 3 percent versus November. Yahoo! Sites came in second with 2.6 billion, followed by Microsoft Sites with nearly 2.0 billion (up 4 percent), Ask Network with 575 million and AOL LLC Network with 312 million.


comScore Explicit Core Search Query Report
December 2010 vs. November 2010
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch

Core Search Entity


Explicit Core Search Queries (MM)

Nov-10

Dec-10

Percent Change

Total Explicit Core Search

16,039

16,443

3%

Google Sites

10,620

10,957

3%

Yahoo! Sites


2,627

2,631

0%

Microsoft Sites

1,885

1,967

4%

Ask Network

580

575

-1%

AOL LLC Network

327

312

-5%




U.S. Total Core Search

Google Sites accounted for 64.3 percent of total core search queries conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 18.8 percent and Microsoft Sites with 12.0 percent (up 0.7 percentage points). Ask Network comprised 3.2 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL LLC Network with 1.7 percent.


comScore Total Core Search Share Report*

December 2010 vs. November 2010
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch

Core Search Entity

Total Core Search Share (%)

Nov-10

Dec-10

Point Change

Total Core Search

100.0%

100.0%

N/A

Google Sites

64.3%

64.3%

0.0

Yahoo! Sites

19.3%

18.8%

-0.5

Microsoft Sites

11.3%

12.0%

0.7

Ask Network

3.3%

3.2%

-0.1

AOL LLC Network

1.8%

1.7%

-0.1


* "Total Core Search" is based on the five major search engines, including
partner searches, cross-channel searches and contextual searches.
Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are
not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in these
numbers.



Americans conducted 18.2 billion total core search queries in December. Google Sites ranked first with 11.7 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.4 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.2 billion.


comScore Total Core Search Query Report
December 2010 vs. November 2010
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch

Core Search Entity

Total Core Search Queries (MM)

Nov-10

Dec-10

Percent Change

Total Core Search

17,755

18,220

3%

Google Sites

11,410

11,716

3%

Yahoo! Sites

3,427

3,434

0%

Microsoft Sites

2,011

2,183

9%

Ask Network

580

575

-1%

AOL LLC Network

327

312

-5%




"Powered By" Reporting

In order to accurately represent the continued evolution of the search landscape, comScore is providing insight into the share of algorithmic Explicit searches that are powered by Google and Bing, and branded as such to the consumer. Google's "powered by" share is composed of searches conducted at Google entities, as well as branded searches at AOL and Ask. Bing's "powered by" share is composed of searches conducted at Microsoft entities as well as branded Yahoo! entities.   

In December, 69.4 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google, while 24.4 percent of searches were powered by Bing organic results. 

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

SOURCE comScore, Inc.