The numbers reported for US search engine market share remained mostly unchanged from September to October 2006, with Americans doing 6.8 billion searches during the month.
Yahoo reversed a slide that lowered them to 28.1 percent in September. They gained slightly to 28.2 in October. Microsoft gave up 0.2 percent to decline to 11.7 percent, after falling 0.6 percent in September to 11.9.
Ask.com held its 5.8 share, while sites on the Time Warner network, including AOL, decreased to 5.4 percent. The 6.8 billion searches represented an annual growth of search query volume, with a 33 percent rise from last year.
Sites on Google’s network handled 3.1 billion queries in the period, followed by Yahoo’s 1.9 billion. No one else topped one billion, as Microsoft handled 796 million search queries. Ask processed 392 million, and Time Warner did 366 million in October.
Roiled by a leaked internal memo, Yahoo suffered a drop of 19 cents in its share price to 26.72 in Wall Street trading today. Google also ticked down 3.74 a share to 495.05 as investors locked in profits in light trading.
Microsoft, IACI (owner of Ask), and Time Warner each enjoyed gains on the day. Microsoft’s 49 cent rise to 29.89 approached a high not seen since November 2004. The maker of the Xbox 360 and the Vista operating system hasn’t closed over $30 per share since March 2002.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
