Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) may be partners in the search engine business because they share a technology platform. However, the bragging rights that go with the No.2 spot behind Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) have shifted to Microsoft for the first time in recent memory.
Online research firm Comscore reported that Microsoft’s share in December was 15.1% in the US, up from 15% in November. Yahoo!’s share fell from 15.1% to 14.5%.
Google remains the leader by far with a share of 65.9%. AOL’s (NASDAQ: AOL) share is 1.6%.
More than 18.2 billion explicit core searches were conducted in December (up 2 percent). Google Sites ranked first with 12 billion (up 3 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites with 2.7 billion (up 2 percent) and Yahoo! Sites with 2.6 billion. Ask Network delivered 531 million searches (up 3 percent), while AOL, Inc. rounded out the top five with 287 million.