Google maintains search market share

Google remains on top of the U.S. search engine rankings with 66 percent of the core search market, showing a slight increase in the latest figures from comScore.

Google led the field in January with 66.2 percent of the search market, up 0.3 percent from December. Microsoft’s search sites were second with 15.2 percent, followed by Yahoo at 14.1 percent. Microsoft was up 0.1 percent from December, while Yahoo was down 0.4 percent.

Google’s share of the search market has become a target of scrutiny by lawmakers and regulators in recent years, as the search giant has antitrust complaints from competitors as it branches out into new Web services.

Traditionally a firm is considered a monopoly if it holds 70 percent of a given market, a threshold Google has flirted with but hasn’t crossed recently. Google is quick to point out that using its products is completely vountary and consumers are free to choose other search engines if they’re not happy with Google.

Google must also contend with a view held by some officials that the core search market itself is distinct from other Web offerings and should be held separately. Google argues that adding new elements such as directions or stock quotes is part of its search service, but some lawmakers disagree.