comScore Releases February 2008 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

RESTON, Va., March 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the search marketplace. February 2008 saw Americans conduct nearly 10 billion core searches, representing a 6-percent sequential decline in activity versus January, primarily a result of the shortened month.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO)

February 2008 U.S. Core Search Rankings

In February, Google Sites extended its share of core searches to 59.2 percent, up from 58.5 percent the previous month. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 21.6 percent, followed by Microsoft Sites (9.6 percent), AOL LLC (4.9 percent), and Ask Network (4.6 percent).

comScore Core Search Report*
February 2008
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch 2.0
Share of Searches (%)
Point
Change
Feb-08 vs.
Core Search Entity Jan-08 Feb-08 Jan-08
Total Core Search 100.0 % 100.0 % 0.0
Google Sites 58.5 % 59.2 % 0.7
Yahoo! Sites 22.2 % 21.6 % -0.6
Microsoft Sites 9.8 % 9.6 % -0.2
AOL LLC 4.9 % 4.9 % 0.0
Ask Network 4.5 % 4.6 % 0.1

* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and
cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and
user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five
search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

Americans conducted 9.9 billion searches at the core search engines, representing a 6-percent decline versus January. Each of the five core search engines experienced search query declines as a result of February being a seasonally soft month for overall search activity. Google Sites saw more than 5.8 billion core searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.1 billion, and Microsoft Sites with 953 million.

comScore Core Search Report*
February 2008
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch 2.0
Search Queries (MM)
Percent
Change
Feb-08 vs.
Core Search Entity Jan-08 Feb-08 Jan-08
Total Core Search 10,492 9,882 -6 %
Google Sites 6,139 5,855 -5 %
Yahoo! Sites 2,332 2,136 -8 %
Microsoft Sites 1,030 953 -7 %
AOL LLC 514 488 -5 %
Ask Network 475 450 -5 %

* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and
cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and
user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five
search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

February U.S. Expanded Search Rankings

In the February 2008 analysis of the Top 50 properties worldwide where search activity is observed, Google Sites led with 7.4 billion searches. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 2.3 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (984 million), and AOL LLC (864 million).

comScore Expanded Search Query Report
February 2008
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch 2.0
Search Queries (MM)
Percent
Change
Feb-08 vs.
Expanded Search Entity Jan-08 Feb-08 Jan-08
Total Expanded Search 14,595 13,806 -5 %
Google Sites 7,735 7,390 -4 %
Google 6,181 5,917 -4 %
YouTube/All Other 1,554 1,473 -5 %
Yahoo! Sites 2,456 2,262 -8 %
Yahoo! 2,427 2,234 -8 %
All Other 29 28 -3 %
Microsoft Sites 1,060 984 -7 %
MSN-Windows Live 1,024 952 -7 %
Microsoft/All Other 36 32 -11 %
AOL LLC 903 864 -4 %
AOL 522 493 -6 %
MapQuest/All Other 381 371 -3 %
eBay 467 480 3 %
Ask Network 477 452 -5 %
Ask.com 286 283 -1 %
MyWebSearch.com/ All Other 191 169 -12 %
Fox Interactive Media 384 337 -12 %
MySpace 376 330 -12 %
All Other 8 7 -13 %
Craigslist.org 256 239 -7 %
Amazon Sites 167 139 -17 %
Facebook.com 109 103 -6 %

To request more information on comScore qSearch 2.0, please visit http://www.comscore.com/contact

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: comScore, Inc.

CONTACT: Andrew Lipsman of comScore, Inc., +1-312-775-6510,
press@comscore.com

Web site: http://www.comscore.com/

2008-03-19 17:25:54 0316750 PRNEWSWIRE