Bing, Yahoo Gain Ground on Google Search Market Share in March
The majority of search market share gains that Google managed to make in the search market share in February were lost to rivals competitors Bing and Yahoo in March, according to a new report published by comScore.
Perhaps even more interesting was the increase in desktop-based search engine activity compiled by comScore. Just one month ago, it appeared that searching from mobile devices would gradually but steadily replace desktop search, however, that trend has been proven to be less predictable than was once thought.
Google’s Losses, Bing’s and Yahoo’s Gains
According to comScore’s report, search market share for March looked like this:
- Google – 67.1% – down 0.4% from February
- Bing – 16.9% – up 0.2% from February
- Yahoo – 11.8% – up 0.2% from February
- Ask – 2.7% – up 0.1% from February
- AOL – 1.7% – down 0.1% from February
Bing and Yahoo both benefit from their increases in search market share since they’re still partnered in terms of search, at least for now. In many prior months, we saw Bing and Yahoo effectively trade market share, resulting in no real gain.
Desktop Search Activity Breaks Monthly Record
Bigger news from the comScore report was the revelation that desktop search hit an all-time record for activity in March. The report indicates that 20.4 billion searches from desktops (or more accurately, computing devices aside from mobile devices) were conducted during the month, up a whopping 11% from February (which, granted, had fewer days than March). This beats the old record (19.5 billion) by nearly a billion searches, and that record was only established in January. It’s also two billion searches more than were recorded in March of 2012, and about four billion more than were recorded in September of that same year.
Are people really abandoning their tablets and smartphones and going back to their laptops and desktop PCs? Or is it more likely that search activity in general is increasing, and desktop search is included in that? Let us know what you think in the comments below.