comScore Releases September 2009 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. In September 2009, Americans conducted 13.8 billion core searches, with Google Sites accounting for 64.9 percent search market share. Microsoft Sites grabbed 9.4 percent market share, representing a slight gain versus August.

September 2009 U.S. Core Search Rankings

Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in September with 64.9 percent of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites (18.8 percent), and Microsoft Sites (9.4 percent). Ask Network captured 3.9 percent of the search market, followed by AOL LLC with 3.0 percent.

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comScore Core Search Report*
September 2009 vs. August 2009
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity     Share of Searches (%)
                       Aug-09   Sep-09   Point Change
                                          Sep-09 vs.
                                            Aug-09
Total Core Search      100.0%   100.0%        N/A
Google Sites            64.6%    64.9%        0.3
Yahoo! Sites            19.3%    18.8%       -0.5
Microsoft Sites          9.3%     9.4%        0.1
Ask Network              3.9%     3.9%        0.0
AOL LLC Network          3.0%     3.0%        0.0
 
* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel 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 the core search numbers.
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Americans conducted 13.8 billion searches in September, down 1 percent from August (which had one additional day compared to September). Google Sites accounted for 9 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites (2.6 billion), Microsoft Sites (1.3 billion), Ask Network (541 million) and AOL LLC (416 million).
 
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comScore Core Search Report*
September 2009 vs. August 2009
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity    Search Queries (MM)
                      Aug-09   Sep-09   Percent Change
                                          Sep-09 vs.
                                            Aug-09
Total Core Search     13,924   13,836        -1%
Google Sites           8,994    8,975         0%
Yahoo! Sites           2,685    2,600        -3%
Microsoft Sites        1,288    1,305         1%
Ask Network              541      541         0%
AOL LLC                  415      416         0%
 
* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel 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 the core search numbers.
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September 2009 U.S. Expanded Search Rankings
 
In the September analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google Sites led the search market with 12.8 billion search queries, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.7 billion queries and Microsoft Sites with nearly 1.4 billion searches. Facebook.com experienced the largest growth of the top ten expanded search properties with a 19-percent increase in query volume to 384 million searches.
 
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comScore Expanded Search Query Report
September 2009 vs. August 2009
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch
 
Expanded Search Entity           Search Queries (MM)
                                 Aug-09    Sep-09    Percent Change
                                                       Sep-09 vs.
                                                         Aug-09
Total Internet                   21,801    21,334          -2%
Google Sites                     13,006    12,839          -1%
    Google                        9,437     9,373          -1%
    YouTube/All Other             3,569     3,466          -3%
Yahoo! Sites                      2,800     2,692          -4%
    Yahoo!                        2,776     2,668          -4%
    All Other                        24        24           0%
Microsoft Sites                   1,343     1,352           1%
    Bing                          1,151     1,156           0%
    Microsoft/All Other             192       196           2%
Ask Network                         646       718          11%
    ASK.COM                         343       339          -1%
    MyWebSearch.com/ All Other      303       379          25%
AOL LLC                             673       625          -7%
    AOL Search Network              354       366           3%
    MapQuest/All Other              319       259         -19%
craigslist, inc.                    682       624          -9%
eBay                                650       621          -4%
Fox Interactive Media               569       500         -12%
    MySpace Sites                   562       494         -12%
    All Other                         7         6         -14%
Facebook.com                        324       384          19%
Amazon Sites                        216       191         -12%
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