Google retains its search crown

Google's share of the US web search market continues to edge beyond Yahoo! and Microsoft, according to the latest monthly numbers released by analysis company ComScore Networks.

The search giant's market share among home, work and university internet users climbed from 42.7 per cent to 43.1 per cent from March to April of this year - up from 36.5 per cent in April 2005, ComScore said on Monday.

In second place, Yahoo! saw its market share hold steady at 28 per cent between March and April, a decrease of 2.7 per cent from last year. Less than six percentage points separated Google's and Yahoo!'s respective market shares in April 2005.

The relative number of search queries through Microsoft's MSN also continued to fall, leaving its market share at 12.9 per cent in April of this year, down from 16.1 per cent at the same time last year.

Time Warner's AOL search dropped to 6.9 per cent from nine per cent in April 2005. InterActiveCorp Search & Media's rebranded Ask.com network also witnessed a slight decline, falling to 5.8 per cent from 6.1 per cent at the same time last year.

For the first time, the search engine operated by the social networking site MySpace.com appeared in the rankings. The company held a distant sixth place in the market share rankings - grabbing only about half a per cent - in April but ComScore indicated it may be worth keeping an eye on the smaller player "due to the site's remarkable popularity".

Anne Broache writes for CNET News.com