Microsoft and Yahoo gain ground on Google

Google's stranglehold on the US search market slipped slightly last month

Google saw its two biggest search competitors make up slight ground last month, according to the latest monthly report from research firm comScore. Google's share of the June US search market was 62.6 per cent, down from 63.7 per cent in May.

Microsoft and Yahoo saw their search market shares increase by 0.6 per cent each on the month. June was the fourth straight month in which Yahoo and Microsoft were able to grow their shares.

Yahoo's share of the market rose to 18.9 per cent, while Microsoft's Bing claimed a 12.7 per cent share.

"Yahoo sites and Microsoft sites have experienced gains due in part to the continued use of contextual search approaches that tie content and related search results together," said comScore.

Ask Network sites saw no change to its share, pulling in 3.6 per cent. AOL Network rounded out the top five with a 2.2 per cent share, down from 2.3 per cent last month.

All of the top five sites saw their traffic loads grow, and the total search load expanded by three per cent on the month.

Yahoo and Microsoft were responsible for the largest gains, with seven per cent and eight per cent respectively. Google's US search traffic was up one per cent.