Comscore Time Again: Google Query Growth Solid, Yahoo Crappy

The first half of the monthly Comscore ritual is complete, and the results shouldn't trigger any alarms. This evening, Comscore released its April query share report. JP Morgan analyst Imran Khan reports that there were no major surprises:

• Google gained share: 61.6% of US queries, up from 59.8% in March--the first time Google's US share has exceeded 60%. Google's queries also grew 31% year-over-year, consistent with the growth rate of the past few months.
  
• Everyone else lost share: Yahoo dropped almost another full point, to 20.4%. Query volume shrank for the third consecutive month, down -1.5%. Slowly but surely, Yahoo's query share is heading toward zero. Microsoft, meanwhile, also lost share, but at least its queries grew year over year--up 9.4%. Ask? Don't ask. Down to 4.3%. AOL dropped, too, to 4.6%.
  
• Overall query volume grew at a steady 18%, the same rate as the last few months.
• Yahoo's continued loss of share is not good news as it tries to cut a deal with Microsoft. Microsoft's continued loss of share is not good news as it panics at the thought of a Google-Yahoo tie-up.
  

As a reminder, this report measures U.S. queries, not worldwide queries or U.S. paid clicks. The Comscore reports that set off the panic last quarter looked at U.S. paid clicks. Comscore will likely publish its April paid click report later this week.

Not yet bored to death by Comscore defending the accuracy of its data after getting blamed (unfairly) for costing investors millions? Then watch Comscore chairman Gian Fulgoni on Cramer here. Or just read the post below.

See Also: The Real Google-Comscore Scandal: Investors Who Won't Take Responsibility For Themselves