Lots of discussion (but not really serious discussion) swirled around Google’s apparent peak in the search market, as the company’s share of searches dropped slightly in August. As predicted by some, Google has made a comeback in September.
Hitwise’s report came first, announcing that Google’s search share had spiked back above 60 percent to 60.29, for the week ending September 9th. This was a 0.3 percent rise from four weeks earlier, when Hitwise said Google’s share had dropped to 59.99 percent, a 0.24 percent drop from July.
Last month, Hitwise’s Bill Tancer predicted it was a temporary dip. “While 60% may represent a saturation point for Google, it also may be a seasonal fluctuation,” he wrote.
Next to weigh in was comScore, who earlier this week announced a 0.4 percent climb in Google search share, rising from 43.7 percent to 44.1 percent. By both companies’ reckoning, the other four spaces are held distantly by the usual suspects: Yahoo , 22-29 percent; MSN, around 12 percent; Time Warner (AOL), around 5 percent (possibly included with Google’s for Hitwise’s report); and Ask, 3-5 percent.
According to comScore, Americans conducted 6.5 billion searches in August, up three percent over July. Google controlled 2.9 billion of those, followed by Yahoo with 1.9 billion, MSN with 812 million, Time Warner with 360 million, and Ask with 358 million.
But when it comes to search toolbars, Google and Yahoo share the crown, controlling 95 percent of toolbar searches together. Google accounted for 49.6 percent of toolbar searches, compared to Yahoo’s 47.3 percent.
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