Yahoo, AOL Reverse Core Search Query Performance

US search providers Yahoo and AOL reversed their August 2011 core search query performance, when Yahoo increased its total 5% and AOL decreased its total 9%, in September 2011,  according to comScore qSearch data. Yahoo’s total core search queries dropped 8%, from 3.61 billion to 3.32 billion, while AOL’s jumped 16%, from 229 million to 265 million.

Number one provider Google, number three Microsoft and number four Ask Network reported little or no month-over-month change in core search queries. The top five providers maintained their rankings from the previous month.

Search Shares Stay Similar

Google led the US total core search market in September with 65.4% market share, followed by Yahoo with 17.2% (down a leading 7%) and Microsoft with 13.4%. Ask Network accounted for 2.6% of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.4%.

In terms of the explicit core search market, there was also little month-over-month change. Google led with 65.3% market share, followed by Yahoo with 15.5% (down a leading 5%), Microsoft with 14.7%, Ask with 3%, and AOL with 1.5%.

Yahoo Also Loses Explicit Core Search Queries

Yahoo also saw its explicit core search query total drop compared to August. In September, Yahoo reported 2.64 billion explicit core search queries, 5% less than 2.78 billion in August. AOL led with a 16% increase, from 229 million to 265 million.

The other three members of the top five search provider list all showed little change from the prior month. Google led with 11.17 billion explicit core search queries, while Microsoft came in third with 2.52 billion and Ask ranked fourth with 507 million.

Google Gains Organic Search Ground

In September, 67.4% of searches carried organic search results from Google (about a 1% increase from 66.8% in August) while 26.7% of searches were powered by Bing (down 1% from 27.1% in August).

Explicit Core Search Query Leaders Gain, Lose from 2010

Looking at comScore data on explicit core search queries conducted in September 2010, it becomes apparent that the top providers have gone in different directions during the past year. Google’s total rose 5% from 10. 6 billion, while Yahoo’s total decreased 22% from 2.7 billion. Microsoft experienced an impressive 40% gain from 1.8 billion queries.

Meanwhile, Ask Network’s explicit core search query total slipped 15% from 593 million, while AOL saw its total drop 27% from 362 million.