According to comScore’s October 2012 Explicit Core Search Share Report , Google and Bing both hit record highs in search market share in the United States in October of this year.
Google’s search market share rose two-tenths of a point, from 66.7 percent in September to 66.9 percent in October. Bing gained a tenth of a point and reached 16 percent in October. Both of those numbers represent all-time highs using comScore’s estimates. Yahoo was static for the month at 12.2% and Ask Network’s share was down from 3.5% in September of 2012 to 3.2% in October of 2012 and AOL was static at 1.8% over the same time period. These are measures of “Explicit Core Search, “which excludes contextually driven searches that do not necessarily reflect use intent to review the search results.
Desktop search activity was up to 17.6 billion in October, an increase of 8% from the previous month. Desktop search activity had been declining since March, reflecting a move to mobile search. Mobile search is estimated to comprise between 10 and 30 percent of all searches currently, depending on the category being searched.
Bottom Line: The previous high for desktop searches was 18.4 billion in March of this year. Desktop search will typically increase during the winter months, as internet searchers move indoors and use readily available desktop devices to search online. This tells me that while Mobile search is growing, desktop is still preferred for many searches when it is readily available. This gap will close as the mobile devices become more user friendly (like Apple’s Siri).
Eric Van Cleave is a Partner in Zenergy Works, A Santa Rosa, California based Website Development and Online Marketing Firm.