Google increases lead over Yahoo in search

IDG News Service - Google Inc. pulled away from Yahoo Inc. in search engine usage during November in a major way, according to comScore Networks Inc.

Google nabbed almost 40% of all searches in the U.S., a commanding lead of more than 10 percentage points over Yahoo, which took second place, comScore said.

Google also increased its share of searches by 5.2% compared with November 2004, while Yahoo saw its share shrink by 2.5% in that same time frame, the market research company said.

Overall, U.S. residents conducted 5.15 billion searches in November. Google's search sites processed 2.05 billion of those searches, or 39.8%, followed by Yahoo sites with 1.52 billion, or 29.5%.

The story in November 2004 was much different, with Google holding a much smaller lead over Yahoo. At that time, Google had a share of 34.6% compared with Yahoo's 32%.

Search-engine usage is the motor behind the largest type of online advertising, paid search, in which ads are delivered along with search results. Most of Google's revenue is generated by paid search advertising. Yahoo and Microsoft Corp. have invested heavily on search technology in recent years to capitalize on the robust growth in paid search advertising.

Microsoft held on to third place, but its share fell from 16% to 14.2%. Time Warner Inc., which includes America Online Inc., came in fourth with 8.7%, down from 9.1%. Finally, Ask Jeeves Inc., which is owned by InterActiveCorp, took the fifth spot and increased its share by 1 percentage point to 6.5%, according to comScore.