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MSN grows but Google holds firm

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Staff CNET News

Published: 22 Aug 2005 10:15 BST

For the moment, add Google's search dominance to the short list — death and taxes — of things that are inevitable.

For July, Google was the market share leader in the US search arena, accounting for 36.5 percent of all searches submitted, according to data released Friday by ComScore Media Metrix. The company has long topped various measurements of search popularity.

Yahoo was a strong second for the month; its share of the market was 30.5 percent, and the Web stalwart continued to have the leading search toolbar — it served as the starting point for 51 percent of all toolbar searches in July. Eleven percent of all US domestic searches took place via toolbars, up from 8 percent in July 2004, ComScore reported.

Third place for overall searches submitted went to Microsoft and its MSN unit, at 15.5 percent, ComScore said. The software powerhouse saw the biggest gain among the top search engines, up 30 percent from the same month last year.

Rounding out the top five were Time Warner, America Online, at 9.9 percent, and Ask Jeeves, at 6.1 percent, according to the report. The total volume of online searches in July was up 22 percent year over year to 4.8 billion.