Search Share Still Tricky to Grok–But Google's Down, While Yahoo and Bing Show Some Legs

Another month, another search data report from comScore.

In the June episode, both Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing gained a weensy bit of market share, while Google (GOOG) gave some up.

But a caveat all around: There is still a lot of uncertainty in the results because of issues involving extra search query-clicks being generated via questionable techniques around contextual search, which comScore (SCOR) said it will eventually fix.

According to analyst Imran Khan of J.P. Morgan:

Without adjustments, Google domestic core search market share was 62.6% in June, down from 63.7% in May. Google domestic core search volume growth of 12.7% Y/Y in June was up from May’s 9.1% growth.

Unadjusted, Yahoo! domestic core search market share increased to 18.9% in June from 18.3% in May. Yahoo! June core search volume was up 13% Y/Y, an improvement from May’s 1% growth. We believe the company is working to address its search market share as outlined at its recent Analyst Day–though the majority of the near-term uplift is coming from efforts to ensure third-party measurement is correctly crediting Yahoo! for contextual searches.

Unadjusted, Microsoft sites domestic core search market share increased to 12.7% in June, from 12.1% in May. Microsoft grew June core search volume by 77% Y/Y, accelerating from 68% growth in May.