Comscore Releases December 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

RESTON, VA, January 14, 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 December with 66.6 percent of searches conducted.

U.S. Explicit Core Search

Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in December with 66.6 percent market share (up 0.4 percentage points), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 16.0 percent and Microsoft sites with 12.0 percent (up 0.2 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 3.5 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL LLC Network with 1.9 percent.

Comscore Explicit Core Search Share Report*
December 2010 vs. November 2010
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch
Core Search Entity Explicit Core Search Share (%)
Nov-10 Dec-10 Point Change
Total Explicit Core Search 100.0% 100.0% N/A
Google Sites 66.2% 66.6% 0.4
Yahoo! Sites 16.4% 16.0% -0.4
Microsoft Sites 11.8% 12.0% 0.2
Ask Network 3.6% 3.5% -0.1
AOL LLC Network 2.0% 1.9% -0.1

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

More than 16.4 billion explicit core searches were conducted in December. Google Sites ranked first with nearly 11.0 billion searches, up 3 percent versus November. Yahoo! Sites came in second with 2.6 billion, followed by Microsoft Sites with nearly 2.0 billion (up 4 percent), Ask Network with 575 million and AOL LLC Network with 312 million.

Comscore Explicit Core Search Query Report
December 2010 vs. November 2010
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch
Core Search Entity Explicit Core Search Queries (MM)
Nov-10 Dec-10 Percent Change
Total Explicit Core Search 16,039 16,443 3%
Google Sites 10,620 10,957 3%
Yahoo! Sites 2,627 2,631 0%
Microsoft Sites 1,885 1,967 4%
Ask Network 580 575 -1%
AOL LLC Network 327 312 -5%

U.S. Total Core Search

Google Sites accounted for 64.3 percent of total core search queries conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 18.8 percent and Microsoft Sites with 12.0 percent (up 0.7 percentage points). Ask Network comprised 3.2 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL LLC Network with 1.7 percent.

Comscore Total Core Search Share Report*
December 2010 vs. November 2010
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch
Core Search Entity Total Core Search Share (%)
Nov-10 Dec-10 Point Change
Total Core Search 100.0% 100.0% N/A
Google Sites 64.3% 64.3% 0.0
Yahoo! Sites 19.3% 18.8% -0.5
Microsoft Sites 11.3% 12.0% 0.7
Ask Network 3.3% 3.2% -0.1
AOL LLC Network 1.8% 1.7% -0.1

* “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 18.2 billion total core search queries in December. Google Sites ranked first with 11.7 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.4 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.2 billion.

Comscore Total Core Search Query Report
December 2010 vs. November 2010
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch
Core Search Entity Total Core Search Queries (MM)
Nov-10 Dec-10 Percent Change
Total Core Search 17,755 18,220 3%
Google Sites 11,410 11,716 3%
Yahoo! Sites 3,427 3,434 0%
Microsoft Sites 2,011 2,183 9%
Ask Network 580 575 -1%
AOL LLC Network 327 312 -5%

"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 December, 69.4 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google, while 24.4 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



 

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