Yahoo benefits from Google losses in July US search market share

Google, currently the 800lbs Internet search gorilla, did not have a good July, having lost part of its market share among other US online searches, whereas rival Yahoo! Inc. made gains – according to researcher ComScore Inc. Fret not if you happen to hold shares in Google – their market share retreated 0.4% from 65.5% in June, whereas Yahoo’s share picked up 0.2% to touch 16.1%. Microsoft Corp. still remains in third at 14.4% – which was unchanged from their June figures.

Historically speaking (which we can’t really go back too far in time for obvious reasons), Google tends to display more summer seasonality compared to its rivals since it has extremely high usage among students in the academic world. Perhaps things have changed as students decided to stop looking to Google for answers, and start doing actual research in the library?

Regardless, such news failed to dampen investor sentiments as Google’s share picked up by 5% to hit $573.41 yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Compare to Yahoo’s loss of 27% this year, Google’s stock fared far better by retreating just 3.5%.