• eWeek, Thursday, January 12, 2012 11:55 AM

For the first time ever, Bing surpassed Yahoo’s search share in December, according to new data from comScore. Last month, Microsoft’s search engine grabbed a 15.1% share of the U.S. search market, compared to Yahoo’s 14.5% -- down from 15.1% in November. eWeek calls the decline a “precipitous drop at a time when percentage points, and even tenths of percentage points, come at a premium versus Google.” Indeed, only tightening it iron grip on the market, Google saw its U.S. search share increase to 65.9% in December -- up from 65.5% in November.

Still, according to eWeek, “Bing's ascension to the No. 2 position is the big news, as Microsoft has spent a lot of money to get there.” Bing debuted in June 2009, when Microsoft's search share was hovering around 8%. Later in 2009,as eWeek reminds us, Microsoft improved Bing’s prospected by striking a deal with Yahoo to power its partner's search queries and ads on the back end.

“Unfortunately for Microsoft,” eWeek adds, “Google hasn't slipped, hovering between the 64 percent mark and the 66 percent mark since Bing launched.” Meanwhile, comScore only factors desktop searches in its metrics, leaving out international, video and mobile searches, which, according to eWeek, would make Google's dominance look that much more formidable.

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