Google sees dip in market share

Google Inc’s share of online searches in the US slipped in August, compared to July, while rivals Yahoo! Inc and Microsoft Corp gained, according to research firm ComScore Inc.

Google had 64.8 per cent of US searches last month, down from 65.1 per cent in July, according to ComScore. It was the second-straight month of decline, following no change in June. Yahoo! climbed to 16.3 per cent, up from 16.1 per cent, rising for a second month in a row. Meanwhile, Microsoft rose to 14.7 per cent from 14.4 per cent.

Yahoo! and Microsoft teamed last year in the search market, providing a bigger threat to Google’s dominance. Under the companies’ 10-year agreement, Microsoft handles internet queries for Yahoo! pages. Microsoft, which released a revamped search engine named Bing in 2009, also has rolled out a multimedia advertising campaign to attract users and is bolstering results by displaying data from Facebook Inc.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, continues to enhance its own features. In June, the company unveiled a feature called Instant Pages that gives users of its Chrome browser quicker connections from links on query results. The change is designed to cut two-five seconds from the process.