With Google (GOOG) holding a 70% share of the PC-based online search market in the US and a similar amount in most EU countries, the best hope that Yahoo! (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) have to catch up is in the emerging market of searching from handsets.

It appears that Google is opening a lead off the PC as recent figures show it well ahead of its competition in the wireless marketplace.

None of the companies pushing wireless search products can benefit without a sharp increase in the overall use of handsets to access results.

According to comScore, the number of people using mobile devices for search in the US rose 68% from June 2007 to June 2008. That brings the total for America to over 12.3 million users. The improvements in most EU countries were similar.

The devastating news for Yahoo! and Microsoft is that Google already has a sizable lead in mobile search, and there is no reason to believe that this will change. It appears that consumer’s preferences on the PC have been passed to their handset use.

In the US, Google’s share of mobile searches was 63% for the three months ending in June. Yahoo!’s was 34.6%. That leaves Microsoft with almost nothing.

The major search companies have been busy cutting deals with handset makers and cellular companies to have their products "pre-loaded" on wireless devices in the hopes of getting adoption. The plans do not appear to be working.

Consumers use the search engine they want, not the one they are given.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.