Google Closed 2010 with 66.6% Search Share

Google finished 2010 with 66.6 percent share, up from 66.2 percent in November, comScore said. Microsoft Bing held 12 percent, while Yahoo fell to 16 percent, its lowest total in years.

Google completed the 2010 campaign with 66.6 percent search share, tying its highest ever stake in the market as rivals Yahoo and Microsoft Bing failed to make headway versus the leader.

ComScore said Jan. 14 Google's share was up from 66.2 percent in November. Microsoft grew search share to 12 percent from 11.8 percent, while Yahoo, whose search and search ads have been powered by Bing since August, dropped to 16 percent from 16.4 percent. 

These comScore numbers counted explicit core search, where users hit enter on a result or clicks on an organic or paid result, a refinement link or on a vertical search tab.

The researcher in August split its metrics into explicit core search and core search buckets to distinguish between traditional clicks and those automatically sustained by slideshows and contextual shortcuts.

Together, Yahoo and Bing finished 2010 with 28 percent share combined, well less than half of Google's plot in the market.

Bing's rise from 8 percent in May 2009 to 12 percent through December 2010 is a solid achievement considering Microsoft's search reputation to that point.

The company has rolled out some impressive innovations in 2010, including tapping Facebook to integrate social network results and user "likes."

Google also upgraded its search in 2010, rolling out its Google Instant predictive search technology to surface results as users type their queries. 

It's clear Google's search kingdom has yet to be threatened by Bing or even Facebook.

However, industry experts believe that could change in 2011, as Facebook's nearly 600 million users are spending more time on the social network than ever.

That could either mean less time spent searching on Google, or more time spent on the Web.