New comScore search stats methodology yields similar results

comScore announced a new search market statistics methodology recently that, according to a blog post on the comScore site, measures "Explicit Core Search," by which they mean, "user engagement with a search service with the intent to retrieve search results." If your reaction was, "as opposed to what?" you're not alone, but the blog post explains.

"...with new implementations of search moving beyond the traditional search box and into the context of the browsing experience as the user engages with non-search content. We called these searches 'contextual searches' because they are originated in the context of other browsing behavior without explicit intent on the part of the user to conduct a search query."

According to Business Insider, the adjusted results for July using this new methodology resulted in slight changes to the search engine market share numbers with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) dropping from 66.2 percent to 65.8, while Yahoo gained slightly, moving up from 16.1 percent to 17.2, and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) (including Bing and other search lumped together) was unchanged at 11 percent. (Yet in spite of this, the author of the Business Insider article insists the new results bode badly for Google, although I'm not clear on what information he's basing this conclusion.)

The Business Insider article suggests that the new method is more accurate because it measures actual searches, as opposed to automated ones. Fair enough, but when all is said and done, the search landscape looks pretty much the same as it did under the old rules with differences so slight, it's hard to know if it's even statistically meaningful. 

At the end of the day, Google still controls the vast majority of the market, and after more than a year, Microsoft seems to have settled in at just over 10 percent with Yahoo, just under 20 percent. Meet the new stats, just about the same as the old stats.

For more information:
- see the comScore blog post
- see the Business Insider article
- see the press release

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