Google Still Far Ahead In Global Search Market - comScore

   DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Google Inc. (GOOG) continued to dominate the global search market in July, with a 68% market share, according to a monthly survey by comScore Inc. (SCOR).

The survey also showed a total of 113.69 billion searches were conducted last month, a 41% jump from a year earlier.

Google searches jumped 58% to 76.68 billion, according to the research group's data. Far behind were Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), No. 2 with a 7.8% share, and Chinese search engine Baidu Inc. (BIDU), with a 7% share.

Microsoft Corp (MSFT), which launched its Bing search engine in June, posted a 41% increase to 3.32 billion searches.

Among the top 10, Russian search engine Yandex (YDX.YY) grew at the fastest rate, 94%. AOL, which is being spun off by Time Warner Inc. (TWX), was the only one in the top 10 to show a decline - 11%.

Europe had the highest share of searches at 32%, followed by Asia Pacific with 31% and North America at 22%. Latin America showed the heaviest search use per person with an average of 130 searches, followed by Europe with 117 and North America at 111.

-By Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357; [e-mail]