RESTON, VA, March 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 February with 65.4 percent of searches conducted.
U.S. Explicit Core Search
Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in February with 65.4 percent market share, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 16.1 percent and Microsoft sites with 13.6 percent (up 0.5 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 3.2 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.7 percent.
Comscore Explicit Core Search Share Report*February 2011 vs. January 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: Comscore qSearch
Core Search Entity
Explicit Core Search Share (%)
Jan-11
Feb-11
Point Change
Total Explicit Core Search
100.0%
N/A
Google Sites
65.6%
65.4%
-0.2
Yahoo! Sites
16.1%
0.0
Microsoft Sites
13.1%
13.6%
0.5
Ask Network
3.4%
3.2%
AOL, Inc.
1.7%
*“Explicit Core Search” excludes contextually driven searches that do not reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.
More than 15.4 billion explicit core searches were conducted in February. Google Sites ranked first with 10.1 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.5 billion, Microsoft Sites with 2.1 billion, Ask Network with 491 million and AOL, Inc. with 267 million.
Comscore Explicit Core Search Query ReportFebruary 2011 vs. January 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: Comscore qSearch
Explicit Core Search Queries (MM)
Percent Change
16,950
15,445
-9%
11,121
10,096
2,729
2,485
2,229
2,106
-5%
576
491
-15%
296
267
-10%
U.S. Total Core Search
Google Sites accounted for 64.9 percent of total core search queries conducted (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 17.3 percent and Microsoft Sites with 13.4 percent (up 0.6 percentage points). Ask Network comprised 2.9 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.6 percent.
Comscore Total Core Search Share Report*February 2011 vs. January 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: Comscore qSearch
Total Core Search Share (%)
Total Core Search
64.6%
64.9%
0.3
17.9%
17.3%
-0.6
12.8%
13.4%
0.6
3.1%
2.9%
1.6%
* “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 thecore domain of the five search engines are not included in these numbers.
Americans conducted nearly 17.0 billion total core search queries in February. Google Sites ranked first with 11.0 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.9 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.3 billion.
Comscore Total Core Search Query ReportFebruary 2011 vs. January 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: Comscore qSearch
Total Core Search Queries (MM)
18,555
16,918
11,987
10,973
-8%
3,313
2,922
-12%
2,383
2,259
274
"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 February, 68.0 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google, while 26.2 percent of searches were powered by Bing organic results.
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Contact:Adam LellaComscore, Inc.+1 (312) 775-6474press@comscore.com