Yahoo Search Share Sinks, Google, Bing Rise in February 2012

Yahoo’s slice of the U.S. search engine market continued to evaporate in February reaching a new low, according to comScore’s latest figures. Google and Bing both saw gains, with Google nearly matching its highest recorded search share (in December 2010).

Yahoo has seen its share of searches drop for six straight months. After peaking in August 2011 at 16.3 percent, it’s been all downhill since for Yahoo. For the first time, Yahoo’s search market share dropped below 14 percent in February – to 13.8 percent, down from 14.1 percent in January and down from 16.1 percent in February 2011.

Meanwhile, Bing, the company the powers Yahoo’s organic search results, continued its incremental growth for the second straight month. At 15.3 percent, Bing grabbed its highest search engine share since launching in 2009, topping its previous high of 15.2 percent, set in January.

Bing became the number two U.S. search engine in the U.S. when it surpassed Yahoo for the first time in December 2011. In February 2011, Bing’s search market share was 13.6 percent. Least surprisingly of all, Google continued to lead the U.S. search market, with 66.4 percent, up from 66.2 percent in January.