Comscore Releases March 2011 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

RESTON, VA, April 13, 2011 – 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 March with 65.7 percent of search queries conducted.

U.S. Explicit Core Search

Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in March with 65.7 percent market share (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 15.7 percent and Microsoft sites with 13.9 percent (up 0.3 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 3.1 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.6 percent.

Comscore Explicit Core Search Share Report*
March 2011 vs. February 2011
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Core Search Entity

Explicit Core Search Share (%)

Feb-11

Mar-11

Point Change

Total Explicit Core Search

100.0%

100.0%

N/A

Google Sites

65.4%

65.7%

0.3

Yahoo! Sites

16.1%

15.7%

-0.4

Microsoft Sites

13.6%

13.9%

0.3

Ask Network

3.2%

3.1%

-0.1

AOL, Inc.

1.7%

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 16.9 billion explicit core searches were conducted in March. Google Sites ranked first with 11.1 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.7 billion, Microsoft Sites with 2.4 billion, Ask Network with 520 million and AOL, Inc. with 272 million.

Comscore Explicit Core Search Query Report
March 2011 vs. February 2011
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Core Search Entity

Explicit Core Search Queries (MM)

Feb-11

Mar-11

Percent Change

Total Explicit Core Search

15,445

16,940

10%

Google Sites

10,096

11,123

10%

Yahoo! Sites

2,485

2,662

7%

Microsoft Sites

2,106

2,362

12%

Ask Network

491

520

6%

AOL, Inc.

267

272

2%

U.S. Total Core Search

Google Sites accounted for 64.1 percent of total core search queries conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 18.0 percent and Microsoft Sites with 13.6 percent. Ask Network comprised 2.8 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.4 percent.

Comscore Total Core Search Share Report*
March 2011 vs. February 2011
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Core Search Entity

Total Core Search Share (%)

Feb-11

Mar-11

Point Change

Total Core Search

100.0%

100.0%

N/A

Google Sites

64.9%

64.1%

-0.8

Yahoo! Sites

17.3%

18.0%

0.7

Microsoft Sites

13.4%

13.6%

0.2

Ask Network

2.9%

2.8%

-0.1

AOL, Inc.

1.6%

1.4%

-0.2

* “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 18.9 billion total core search queries in March. Google Sites ranked first with 12.1 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.4 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.6 billion.

Comscore Total Core Search Query Report
March 2011 vs. February 2011
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Core Search Entity

Total Core Search Queries (MM)

Feb-11

Mar-11

Percent Change

Total Core Search

16,918

18,886

12%

Google Sites

10,973

12,113

10%

Yahoo! Sites

2,922

3,405

17%

Microsoft Sites

2,259

2,576

14%

Ask Network

491

520

6%

AOL, Inc.

274

272

-1%

"Powered By" Reporting

In order to accurately represent the continued evolution of the search landscape, Comscore is providing insight into the share of algorithmic explicit searches that are powered by Google and Bing, and branded as such to the consumer. Google’s “powered by” share is composed of searches conducted at Google entities, as well as branded searches at AOL and Ask. Bing’s “powered by” share is composed of searches conducted at Microsoft entities as well as branded Yahoo! entities.

In March, 68.2 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google, while 26.4 percent of searches were powered by Bing organic results.

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.

Contact:
Adam Lella
Comscore, Inc.
+1 (312) 775-6474
press@comscore.com