In July 2006, Yahoo! Sites posted modest market share gains for the second consecutive month to reach 28.8% of US searches, trailing Google Sites, which registered a 43.7% share. Google’s share declined 1% from the previous month, ending its impressive 11-month run of consecutive gains. Microsoft Sites held steady in third position with 12.8% share of searches, while Time-Warner Network (5.9%) and Ask Network (5.4%) each showed modest market share gains versus the previous month.
Americans conducted 6.3 bln searches online in July 2006, down 2% versus June 2006, reflecting seasonal declines typically seen in July. Growth in search query volume on an annual basis remains strong, rising 30% since July 2005. Google Sites led the pack with 2.7 bln search queries performed, followed by Yahoo Sites (1.8 bln), MSN-Microsoft (802 mln), Time-Warner Network (366 mln), and Ask Jeeves/Ask Network (338 mln). Google and Yahoo! continued their dominance in toolbar searches, combining for more than 95% of the market share in July. Google grabbed 50.3% of toolbar searches, while Yahoo! captured 46.2%.
| Top search engines in July 2006 | ||||
| Share, % | Growth | |||
| July 2005 | June 2006 | July 2006 | YTY | |
| 36.5 | 44.7 | 43.7 | 7.2 | |
| Yahoo! | 30.5 | 28.5 | 28.8 | -1.7 |
| MSN | 15.5 | 12.8 | 12.8 | -2.7 |
| Time Warner | 9.9 | 5.6 | 5.9 | -4.0 |
| Ask | 6.1 | 5.1 | 5.4 | -0.7 |
| Source: comScore | ||||