RESTON, VA, February 11, 2011 – comScore, Inc., 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 January with 65.6 percent of searches conducted.
U.S. Explicit Core Search
Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in January with 65.6 percent market share, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 16.1 percent and Microsoft Sites with 13.1 percent (up 1.1 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 3.4 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL LLC Network with 1.7 percent.
| comScore Explicit Core Search Share Report* January 2011 vs. December 2010 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch |
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| Core Search Entity | Explicit Core Search Share (%) | ||
| Dec-10 | Jan-11 | Point Change | |
| Total Explicit Core Search | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| Google Sites | 66.6% | 65.6% | -1.0 |
| Yahoo! Sites | 16.0% | 16.1% | 0.1 |
| Microsoft Sites | 12.0% | 13.1% | 1.1 |
| Ask Network | 3.5% | 3.4% | -0.1 |
| AOL LLC Network | 1.9% | 1.7% | -0.2 |
*“Explicit Core Search” excludes contextually driven searches that do not
reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.
Nearly 17 billion explicit core searches were conducted in January. Google Sites ranked first with 11.1 billion searches. Yahoo! Sites came in second with 2.7 billion, followed by Microsoft Sites with 2.2 billion (up 13 percent), Ask Network with 576 million and AOL LLC Network with 296 million.
| comScore Explicit Core Search Query Report January 2011 vs. December 2010 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch |
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| Core Search Entity | Explicit Core Search Queries (MM) | ||
| Dec-10 | Jan-11 | Percent Change | |
| Total Explicit Core Search | 16,443 | 16,950 | 3% |
| Google Sites | 10,957 | 11,121 | 1% |
| Yahoo! Sites | 2,631 | 2,729 | 4% |
| Microsoft Sites | 1,967 | 2,229 | 13% |
| Ask Network | 575 | 576 | 0% |
| AOL LLC Network | 312 | 296 | -5% |
U.S. Total Core Search
Google Sites accounted for 64.6 percent of total core search queries conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 17.9 percent and Microsoft Sites with 12.8 percent (up 0.8 percentage points). Ask Network comprised 3.1 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL LLC Network with 1.6 percent.
| comScore Total Core Search Share Report* January 2011 vs. December 2010 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch |
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| Core Search Entity | Total Core Search Share (%) | ||
| Dec-10 | Jan-11 | Point Change | |
| Total Core Search | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| Google Sites | 64.3% | 64.6% | 0.3 |
| Yahoo! Sites | 18.8% | 17.9% | -0.9 |
| Microsoft Sites | 12.0% | 12.8% | 0.8 |
| Ask Network | 3.2% | 3.1% | -0.1 |
| AOL LLC Network | 1.7% | 1.6% | -0.1 |
* “Total Core Search” is based on the five major search engines, includingpartner searches,
cross-channel searches and contextual searches. Searchesfor 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 18.6 billion total core search queries in January. Google Sites ranked first with 12 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.3 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.4 billion.
| comScore Total Core Search Query Report January 2011 vs. December 2010 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch |
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| Core Search Entity | Total Core Search Queries (MM) | ||
| Dec-10 | Jan-11 | Percent Change | |
| Total Core Search | 18,220 | 18,555 | 2% |
| Google Sites | 11,716 | 11,987 | 2% |
| Yahoo! Sites | 3,434 | 3,313 | -4% |
| Microsoft Sites | 2,183 | 2,383 | 9% |
| Ask Network | 575 | 576 | 0% |
| AOL LLC Network | 312 | 296 | -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 January, 68.2 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google, while 25.6 percent of searches were powered by Bing organic results.
*Source: comScore