Microsoft and Yahoo! deal close?

Stephen Withers
Monday, 20 July 2009 04:12

Your IT - Home IT

According to Net Applications' Market Share report, Google's search share is 82 percent, with Yahoo! on 9 percent and Microsoft on 5 percent.

Other figures show Google even further ahead. For example, StatCounter's latest GlobalStat figures show Google taking 89 percent, Yahoo! with 5 percent, and Microsoft with 4 percent.

The situation is noticeably different in the US. StatCounter has Google still well ahead on 76 percent. but Microsoft and Yahoo! faring significantly better on 11 percent each.

Both Net Applications and StatCounter measure pageloads at client sites that result from people clicking search engine results. Other methodologies yield different results.

For example, comScore tracks the activities of a large panel (approximately two million) of internet users. Its June figures have Google on 65 percent, Yahoo on 20 percent, and Microsoft on 8 percent.

News of a possible deal saw Yahoo! shares close at $US16.84, up 65c. Some of the rise was likely due to Google's positive second-quarter results and its claim of improvement in the internet advertising market.

Microsoft shares closed down 0.61 percent at $24.29.