Bing and Yahoo gained search-market share in the United States during June, according to the latest figures from comScore. However, some industry observers are questioning the firm’s methodology.
Though Google sites led the U.S. search market last month with a 62.6 percent share, searches at Yahoo and Microsoft sites rose 0.6 percentage points to 18.9 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively, comScore said. On the other hand, comScore said Yahoo and Microsoft have been experiencing gains in part because of their reliance on contextual approaches that tie content and related search results together.
“By providing search results that are highly relevant to the content being consumed by a user, properties like MSN and Yahoo can provide intuitive and convenient content-discovery experiences,” wrote Cameron Meierhoefer in a comScore blog. “Also, by providing search results in context across their network, those sites are able to leverage the size of their audience to expose more users to their search services.”
A Mixed Verdict
Some industry observers have questioned the wisdom of including contextual searches as part of comScore’s monthly totals, since they are offered to search users without being requested specifically. For example, an investment commentary at The Motley Fool called comScore’s practice of counting them in its reports “a sham.”
The web-metrics firm says it recognizes that context-driven searches are inherently different experiences compared to traditional web search queries and intends to refine its methodology accordingly. “We will aim to implement proposed revisions in the third quarter — ideally starting with the release of July data in the first half of August,” Meierhoefer wrote.
According to Net Applications, which said it doesn’t differentiate standard search referrals from context-driven searches, Google racked up a 84.96 percent global market share in June, more than a percentage point lower than in April.
“We do agree that Google’s competition is gaining…