Saturday, May 26, 2012 Last update: Yesterday, 6:04 PM
U.S. Technology Company News from the Inside

comScore Releases November 2011 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

Companies mentioned in this article: comScore, Inc.

RESTON, Va., Dec. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. Google Sites led the explicit core search market in November with 65.4 percent of search queries conducted.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO)

U.S. Explicit Core Search

Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in November with 65.4 percent market share, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 15.1 percent and Microsoft Sites with 15.0 percent (up 0.2 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 2.9 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.6 percent (up 0.1 percentage points).

    comScore Explicit Core Search Share Report*
    November 2011 vs. October 2011
    Total U.S. - Home & Work Locations
    Source: comScore qSearch
    ------------------------
    Core Search Entity                                               Explicit Core Search Share
                                                                     (%)
    ------------------                                               --------------------------
    Oct-11                                                          Nov-11                  Point Change
    ------                                                          ------                  ------------
    Total Explicit Core Search                                          100.0%     100.0%                      N/A
    --------------------------                                          -----      -----                       ---
    Google Sites                                                         65.6%      65.4%                     -0.2
    ------------                                                         ----       ----                      ----
    Yahoo! Sites                                                         15.2%      15.1%                     -0.1
    ------------                                                         ----       ----                      ----
    Microsoft Sites                                                      14.8%      15.0%                      0.2
    ---------------                                                      ----       ----                       ---
    Ask Network                                                           2.9%       2.9%                      0.0
    -----------                                                           ---        ---                       ---
    AOL, Inc.                                                             1.5%       1.6%                      0.1
    ---------                                                             ---        ---                       ---

*"Explicit Core Search" excludes contextually driven searches that do not reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.

More than 17.8 billion explicit core searches were conducted in November. Google Sites ranked first with 11.7 billion, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.7 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.7 billion. Ask Network delivered 516 million searches, while AOL, Inc. rounded out the top five with 286 million (up 3 percent).

    comScore Explicit Core Search Query Report
    November 2011 vs. October 2011
    Total U.S. - Home & Work Locations
    Source: comScore qSearch
    ------------------------
    Core Search Entity                                              Explicit Core Search Queries (MM)
    ------------------                                              --------------------------------
    Oct-11                                                          Nov-11                   Percent Change
    ------                                                          ------                   --------------
    Total Explicit Core Search                                          18,077     17,887              -1%
    --------------------------                                          ------     ------             ---
    Google Sites                                                        11,863     11,704              -1%
    ------------                                                        ------     ------             ---
    Yahoo! Sites                                                         2,741      2,696              -2%
    ------------                                                         -----      -----             ---
    Microsoft Sites                                                      2,678      2,684               0%
    ---------------                                                      -----      -----             ---
    Ask Network                                                            518        516               0%
    -----------                                                            ---        ---             ---
    AOL, Inc.                                                              277        286               3%
    ---------                                                              ---        ---             ---

U.S. Total Core Search

Google Sites accounted for 65.7 percent of total core search queries conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 16.3 percent and Microsoft Sites with 14.0 percent (up 0.4 percentage points). Ask Network comprised 2.6 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.4 percent.

    comScore Total Core Search Share Report*
    November 2011 vs. October 2011
    Total U.S. - Home & Work Locations
    Source: comScore qSearch
    ------------------------
    Core Search Entity                                Total Core Search Share (%)
    ------------------                                --------------------------
    Oct-11                                            Nov-11                  Point Change
    ------                                            ------                  ------------
    Total Core Search                                     100.0%     100.0%                      N/A
    -----------------                                     -----      -----                       ---
    Google Sites                                           66.2%      65.7%                     -0.5
    ------------                                           ----       ----                      ----
    Yahoo! Sites                                           16.3%      16.3%                      0.0
    ------------                                           ----       ----                       ---
    Microsoft Sites                                        13.6%      14.0%                      0.4
    ---------------                                        ----       ----                       ---
    Ask Network                                             2.6%       2.6%                      0.0
    -----------                                             ---        ---                       ---
    AOL, Inc.                                               1.4%       1.4%                      0.0
    ---------                                               ---        ---                       ---

* "Total Core Search" is based on the five major search engines, including partner searches, cross-channel searches and contextual 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 these numbers.

Americans conducted 19.9 billion total core search queries in November. Google Sites ranked first with 13.1 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.2 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.8 billion (up 1 percent).

    comScore Total Core Search Query Report
    November 2011 vs. October 2011
    Total U.S. - Home & Work Locations
    Source: comScore qSearch
    ------------------------
    Core Search Entity                                Total Core Search Queries (MM)
    ------------------                                -----------------------------
    Oct-11                                            Nov-11                    Percent Change
    ------                                            ------                    --------------
    Total Core Search                                     20,295      19,906              -2%
    -----------------                                     ------      ------             ---
    Google Sites                                          13,431      13,074              -3%
    ------------                                          ------      ------             ---
    Yahoo! Sites                                           3,306       3,245              -2%
    ------------                                           -----       -----             ---
    Microsoft Sites                                        2,762       2,785               1%
    ---------------                                        -----       -----             ---
    Ask Network                                              518         516               0%
    -----------                                              ---         ---             ---
    AOL, Inc.                                                277         286               3%
    ---------                                                ---         ---             ---

"Powered By" Reporting

As a part of comScore's commitment to accurately represent the continued evolution of the search landscape, comScore is providing insight into the share of organic Core Explicit searches that are powered by Google and Bing.

In November, 67.6 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google (vs. 67.7 percent in October) while 26.7 percent of searches were powered by Bing (vs. 26.1 percent in October).

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

SOURCE comScore, Inc.