Comscore Releases September 2011 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

RESTON, VA, October 11, 2011 – 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 September with 65.3 percent of search queries conducted.

U.S. Explicit Core Search

Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in September with 65.3 percent market share (up 0.5 percentage points), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 15.5 percent and Microsoft Sites with 14.7 percent. Ask Network accounted for 3.0 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.5 percent (up 0.2 percentage points).

Comscore Explicit Core Search Share Report*
September 2011 vs. August 2011
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Core Search Entity

Explicit Core Search Share (%)

Aug-11

Sep-11

Point Change

Total Explicit Core Search

100.0%

100.0%

N/A

Google Sites

64.8%

65.3%

0.5

Yahoo! Sites

16.3%

15.5%

-0.8

Microsoft Sites

14.7%

14.7%

0.0

Ask Network

3.0%

3.0%

0.0

AOL, Inc.

1.3%

1.5%

0.2

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

More than 17.1 billion explicit core searches were conducted in September, with Google Sites ranking first with 11.2 billion (up 1 percent). Yahoo! Sites came in second with 2.6 billion, followed by Microsoft Sites with 2.5 billion. Ask Network delivered 507 million searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 265 million (up 16 percent).

Comscore Explicit Core Search Query Report
September 2011 vs. August 2011
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Core Search Entity

Explicit Core Search Queries (MM)

Aug-11

Sep-11

Percent Change

Total Explicit Core Search

17,122

17,103

0%

Google Sites

11,090

11,171

1%

Yahoo! Sites

2,782

2,644

-5%

Microsoft Sites

2,510

2,516

0%

Ask Network

510

507

-1%

AOL, Inc.

229

265

16%

U.S. Total Core Search

Google Sites accounted for 65.4 percent of total core search queries conducted (up 1 percentage point), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 17.2 percent and Microsoft Sites with 13.4 percent (up 0.1 percentage point). Ask Network comprised 2.6 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.4 percent (up 0.2 percentage points).

Comscore Total Core Search Share Report*
September 2011 vs. August 2011
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Core Search Entity

Total Core Search Share (%)

Aug-11

Sep-11

Point Change

Total Core Search

100.0%

100.0%

N/A

Google Sites

64.4%

65.4%

1.0

Yahoo! Sites

18.5%

17.2%

-1.3

Microsoft Sites

13.3%

13.4%

0.1

Ask Network

2.6%

2.6%

0.0

AOL, Inc.

1.2%

1.4%

0.2

* “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 19.3 billion total core search queries in September. Google Sites ranked first with 12.7 billion searches (up 1 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.3 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.6 billion.

Comscore Total Core Search Query Report
September 2011 vs. August 2011
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Core Search Entity

Total Core Search Queries (MM)

Aug-11

Sep-11

Percent Change

Total Core Search

19,482

19,345

-1%

Google Sites

12,541

12,659

1%

Yahoo! Sites

3,610

3,326

-8%

Microsoft Sites

2,592

2,588

0%

Ask Network

510

507

-1%

AOL, Inc.

229

265

16%

“Powered By” Reporting

As a part of Comscore’s commitment to accurately represent the continued evolution of the search landscape, Comscore is providing insight into the share of organic Core Explicit searches that are powered by Google and Bing.

In September, 67.4 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google (vs. 66.8 percent in August) while 26.7 percent of searches were powered by Bing (vs. 27.1 percent in August).

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.

Contact:
Adam Lella
Comscore, Inc.
+1 (312) 775-6474
press@comscore.com