Google Search Share Grows Again in October - ComScore Reports

[tedster]

So Google has 66.3% of all searches conducted in October says comScore an increase of 0.2%. Does that mean Instant Search is working?

[reelseo.com...]

ComScore has gone to some lengths to scrub the data, reporting only on "Explicit Core Search" which they say excludes "contextually driven searches that do not reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results."

[tedster]

Funny analysis here:

It seems like Google stole its added 0.2% from Yahoo, who was second with 16.5%, and Microsoft stole its extra 0.3% from Ask and AOL who, combined, lost the same amount.

But since AOL uses Google's data... ?

[mrguy]

I would like to see the stats that totally remove instant search from the equation.

If a user pauses for 3 seconds, then that is considered a core search with instant search.

Until comscore discounts instant search, their results don't mean nothing anymore because those searches from instant that are being counted are not searches people intended to do so whey should not get factored into the results?

That said, even with them counting instant, yes it looks like they took that gain from AOL which showed their results anyway.

[tedster]

You are seeing that. If ComScore were counting all the 3-second pauses as explicit search, Google's numbers would have zoomed up dramatically, rather than inched up.

ComScore explains their methodology in detail here: Google Instant Search Reporting [blog.comscore.com]. Three second pauses are considered IMPLICIT core search, and not explicit core search. Explicit search requires an explicit user action, not a pause.

User actions that qualify an explicit query include those where a user hits "enter," clicks on an algorithmic or sponsored result, clicks one of the various refinement links (such as past 24 hours, etc.) or clicks on a vertical search tab to execute the query in a different channel (such as News or Image Search).

Any query with such explicit action is counted in Explicit Core Search. Query result pages without explicit user action, but with a pause of at least 3 seconds, are considered as indicating ‘implicit’ engagement and will count towards Total Core Search.