Search Engine Land » Platforms » Google » Google’s huge search market share loss wasn’t real: Data revised
While it wasn't as dramatic a drop as first reported, Google has been consistently losing U.S. search market share since August 2023.
Danny Goodwin on May 5, 2024 at 10:22 am | Reading time: 2 minutes
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Statcounter has revised data indicating that Google took a massive hit to its search market share in April while Microsoft Bing and Yahoo made ludicrous gains.
Inaccurate data. For U.S. search market share in April, here’s what Statcounter was showing just a few days ago:
- Google fell to 77.52%, down from 86.94% in March and down from 88.88% year-over-year (YoY).
- Microsoft Bing grew to 13.05% in April, up from 8.04% in March and up from 6.43% YoY.
- Yahoo grew to 7.3%, up from 2.48% in March and up from 2.33% YoY.
Revised data. Here are the revised stats for April in the U.S.
- Google fell to 86.58%, down from 86.94% in March and 88.88% YoY.
- Microsoft Bing grew to 8.24%, up from 8.04% in March and up from 6.43% YoY.
- Yahoo grew to 2.59%, up from 2.48% in March and up from 2.33% YoY.
Google is dropping. While it wasn’t as dramatic a drop as Statcounter first reported, Google has been consistently losing U.S. search market share since August 2023, when it was at 89.03%. Google’s highest search market share in the past 12 months was 89.1% in May 2023.
- Coincidentally perhaps, Google announced Search Generative Experience last May.
Globally. Google has 90.91% search market share, according to Statcounter’s revised data. This is down from 91.38% in March and down from 92.82% YoY. Google’s highest search market share during the past 12 months globally was 93.11% last May.
- Microsoft Bing is at 3.64%, up from 2.76% YoY.
- Yahoo is at 1.13%, up from 1.11% YoY.
Still reviewing. However, Statcounter is still reviewing its search data for April 2024, according to a popup on its chart.
- This data could still change more within the next 40 days or so when it completes its period of quality assurance testing and revision, according to Statcounter.
No comment. Since acknowledging the issue to me via email, I’ve yet to hear back from Statcounter. I’ll add a comment if/when they provide one about what happened with its April data. In fairness, it is the weekend, so I plan to follow up again tomorrow (Monday).
Update, May 8: StatCounter confirms issue. A Statcounter spokesperson told Search Engine Land:
- “There was indeed an anomaly in our sample data for April. We have rerun the data now and the charts are updated.”
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About the author
Staff
Danny Goodwin
Danny Goodwin is Editorial Director of Search Engine Land & Search Marketing Expo - SMX. He joined Search Engine Land in 2022 as Senior Editor. In addition to reporting on the latest search marketing news, he manages Search Engine Land’s SME (Subject Matter Expert) program. He also helps program U.S. SMX events.
Goodwin has been editing and writing about the latest developments and trends in search and digital marketing since 2007. He previously was Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal (from 2017 to 2022), managing editor of Momentology (from 2014-2016) and editor of Search Engine Watch (from 2007 to 2014). He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts.
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