Google & Yahoo Loose Ground, Microsoft Search Gains Ground & Ask Remains Steady
Both comScore and Compete have released their June numbers, and to many people's surprise Microsoft actually gained some ground in June. Of all the search engines, Microsoft was the only one to see any gain, both Yahoo! and Google saw a drop in their market share while Ask stayed steady in both measurements.
Compete does give you a little better picture when it reports the numbers in that they give you the previous month plus they also show you the previous year's data. comScore only give you a comparison to the previous month. Without the third piece pf data, you might think the Microsoft might be ready to "break free" and start going on a run, however looking at Compete's data, sure it grew over last month in market share, but it's not above it's last year's June numbers.
One thing I've learned in this business is that you can present numbers like these in any way, especially with only 2 data points. The more data points you have to present, the more sound or more speculative your conclusions become. It would probably behoove companies like comScore and Compete to show a 3 month (1 rolling quarter) view with the previous year's data, but we'll just have keep waiting on that (i.e. don't hold your breath).
I think the most surprising thing of the data being reported isn't that Microsoft gained ground, it's that ASK remained steady in spite of Microsoft gaining. Google and Yahoo! lost, so now one ponders about those commercials Ask is doing, could they be having some affect on their market share?
See the other discussions about the data at Techmeme.
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