Google Inc. (GOOG): Search Market Share Drops in Latest Report

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) made a name for itself with Google Search, so one might worry when the dominant web search engine of the last 15 years loses market share.

There is panic! Ummm, yeah. Panic. Riiiight.

Maybe it would be one thing if the loss was significant and a single competitor gained all the loss, but that is not the case. However, it is a little noteworthy that as the number of web searches recorded in the latest survey by comScore could indicate that Google may actually be slipping a bit in its dominance.

In the latest one-month survey of web searches conducted from November 12 to December 12 of 2012, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)recorded 66.7 percent of the market, which is actually a 0.3 percent drop from the previous survey. The top competitors, Bing by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 0.1 percent to 16.3 percent, while Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is third with 12.2 percent. The key item is that the entire 0.3 percent loss by Google did not go to any one competitor; each of the next three competitors increased their share by 0.1 percent each.

In this most recent survey, there were 17.6 billion Web searches worldwide, up 4 percent from the previous month. Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) searches were also up 4 percent to 11.7 billion, while Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing searches were up 5 percent to 2.8 billion. However, the gulf between Google and Bing may actually be smaller when one considers that some of the searches are “powered by” other competitors.

When comScore looks at the search engine that “powers” all searches and not just the name on the front of the search page, it seems that Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) may have some room at least for concern, if not the outright panic.

What kind of concern, you might ask?

As Bing by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is behind most of the searches on Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Google powers AOL Search, reconciling the numbers shows that Google owns 69 percent of the search market, while Microsoft Bing is up to just shy of 26 percent. And Bing has continued to slowly climb, while Google continues to slowly see its share erode. There is no breakdown by continent, which might be interesting to see considering that Google’s search engine is under a lot of heat in the European Union over antitrust allegations, where the company is being charged with favoring its own partner Web sites and services in its searches – pushing rivals down the list.

What do you think about this report? Based on the report (linked above), is there a trend that would indicate discouragement for Google or encouragement for Microsoft? Does Google have cause for concern? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

DISCLOSURE: I hold no positions in any of the stocks mentioned.

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