Google sites still lead the market in search queries in the third quarter, in spite of considerable growth from Microsoft sites since the launch of Bing.
Actually Google sites handled 64.9 percent of 13.8 billion core searches originating in the United States in September even if searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites are not included in the core search numbers, according to a report from Internet trend monitoring firm, comScore.
In other words, Google market share was three times greater than that generated by its biggest competitor Yahoo! Sites which captured 18.8 percent and six times greater than the Microsoft sites share which grabbed 9.4 percent. Other relevant results came from Ask Network and AOL LLC gaining respectively 3.9 percent and 3.0 percent of the market share.
Yahoo-Microsoft Deal Will Boost Bing
On the other hand, the Yahoo-Microsoft deal, which hopefully will be closed in early 2010, would change the situation significantly raising the share of both companies together up to 28.2 percent, according to comScore.
Under the agreement Microsoft's Bing would power Yahoo search and Yahoo would sell premium search advertising services for both companies.
According to the American Association of Advertising Agencies, this deal would enhance competition and make the search engine advertising market much healthier. Basically, this potentially successful pact would be essential to the Internet's future, since most websites business depend on online advertising. In this way an explanation would be found for the broad support of the deal which Yahoo! greatly welcomed.
Market Share
In spite of a 4 percent seasonal decline in searches from August (September is a shorter month, with a long holiday weekend in the U.S.A.), Microsoft increased its market share by 1 percent in September. This growth could be hypothetically an effect of the upcoming deal with Yahoo!.
It should not be surprising that the dominant position of Google would be so influential as to make the market more competitive through a deal between two corporations.
In fact, in another world a deal of that sort could be seen as a threat to competition and this is obviously taken into consideration by the U.S. Department of Justice which had begun seeking information for an antitrust review of the search deal with Yahoo in September.
On the other hand, leading members of the advertising and marketing services industry are urging the Department of Justice to bring its antitrust review to a speedy conclusion.
