Nielsen Reports Drop in Google Search Share

Nielsen Online reports Google share of the Internet search market declined 1.2 percent in December, with Yahoo and Microsoft gaining ground.

Nielson Online has released data for the top U.S. Internet search providers…and the results contain a surprise. According to Nielsen (PDF), Google’s share of the U.S. Internet search market actually declined during December 2008, slipping from 64.1 percent in November to 62.9 percent in December. Nonetheless, 2008 remains overall a banner year for Google, which saw a significant increase in the number of searches it handles, and a 33.5 percent year-on-year increase in its share of the search market.

According to Nielsen, Yahoo and Microsoft were the primary beneficiaries of Google’s slip, with Yahoo growing its share of the market to 16.8 percent and Microsoft ticking up to 9.8 percent; each gain represents a 0.7 percent increase. AOL came in with a 4.1 percent share and Ask.com dropped to 2 percent; those figures represent respective drops of 0.2 and 0.3 percent.

But just to show that these media metrics companies don’t often agree—though each, of course, touts the accuracy and rigorousness of their data—market analysis firm Hitwise reported that Google captured 72.07 percent of the U.S. Internet search market in November 2008, with AOL accounting for 17.79 percent, Microsoft 5.56 percent, and Ask.com 3.15 percent.