For anyone just glancing at the latest market share data on search engines, it might appear that Microsoft and its new partner Yahoo both gained share in April, while their arch nemesis, Google, lost share.
According to April search statistics from Web analytics firm comScore, Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Bing search engine came in with an 11.8 percent share, a gain of 0.1 percent from March. Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) racked up 17.7 percent, a seemingly huge jump from 16.9 percent in March. And Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), meanwhile, fell to 64.4 percent share, down from 65.1 percent.
While Google still holds a commanding lead, it's rarely been seen losing ground to its rivals -- a reversal of fortune could have major implications for search marketers and online merchants.
But while the top-line results from comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) would initially seem to support that conclusion, the numbers for all three search technologies were skewed slightly this month by "definitional" changes.
That's according to some observers, who have noted several changes last month that have impacted the way the numbers could be interpreted.
The introduction of "slideshow" features on Yahoo News and on Bing search caused those numbers to be a little off. ComScore also made some minor changes to its definitions in April, but the slideshow features are most telling.
"As users scroll through images, they actually generate a 'search' that is tracked and counted by comScore," Broadpoint AmTech analyst Benjamin Schachter wrote in a research note regarding comScore's April figures.
Yahoo benefited greatly from the change, but Bing did as well, he wrote.
"Bing's reported query volumes were also impacted by its use of 'slide-show' type image searches across its autos, health, and real estate categories in April. If we exclude the impact of these April additions at Bing and YHOO, we estimate that Bing’s share was closer to 11.5 percent," Schachter added.
Excluding the slideshow numbers, Google actually gained 0.3 percent to 65.4 percent.
"If we also back-out similar 'slide-show' generated queries from MSFT that began in April, we estimate that YHOO's market share was up to 17.0 percent ... closer to 16.9 percent, or flat versus March," the research note said.
So, instead of Microsoft and Yahoo both gaining share, Yahoo was up very slightly while Bing was down also very slightly, in a shift from recent trends. Google, meanwhile, instead of being down, actually picked up a tiny morsel of market share.
"Given YHOO's declines over the past 14 - 15 months, maintaining share is a win, but we don’t think many will think that YHOO's search share problems are now solved," the research note said.
Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing writer at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.
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