It's no secret that Google is number one when it comes to the people's choice for search engines - and it looks like the public are showing no signs of changing their preferences. Online marketing research company comScore has announced that, as of July 2008, Google has increased its search share to 61.9 per cent from June's 61.5 per cent.Of course, a win for Google means a loss for somebody else - second place Yahoo! experienced a drop in its search share from 20.9 per cent to 20.5 per cent. Ouch - isn't 0.4 per cent the exact amount that Google slid up? Given the burgeoning friendship between the two search engines, let's hope these recent figures don't cause any animosity.
Yahoo! isn't the only search engine that suffered, though. The finalist in search's top three, Microsoft, also saw its search share drop from 9.2 per cent to just 8.9 per cent - as if the multinational corporation wasn't already smarting from Yahoo! and Google's recent ad deal.
ComScore's report showed that total number of search queries sent in the USA increased by two per cent over the month from June to July, bringing the total queries to 11.8 billion.
Despite Google being the only search engine in the top three to benefit, comScore included two other search engine, which - together with Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft - make the top five.
Both Ask.com and AOL saw better results last month, with Ask.com enjoying a jump from 4.3 per cent to 4.5 percent and AOL seeing an increase to 4.1 per cent from 4.2 per cent.
That Google's user base is only increasing is no real shock. The search giant clearly dominates and drives the market, issues frequent updates and continually displays a company ethic that internet users can relate to.
And, since comScore's report doesn't even include user-generated video sites - such as YouTube, which is owned by Google and used by millions daily - it's clear that Google's popularity is based on much more than just its innovative social services.
The real question now is how will Microsoft bounce back? It's already announced that it plans to invest in creating a more in-depth, personalised user experience and its recent acquisition of natural language search engine Powerset is sure to aid this.
But whatever it does, one thing's for sure: it'll be a tough task to rain on Google's 10-year parade.
