Google should not be worried about a 1% search marketshare loss to Yahoo!

The web search results for July are in, and Google lost a percentage point in Internet search marketshare to competitor Yahoo! Should GOOG investors start running for the hills, cash portfolio in hand? Hardly -- the July Internet search U.S. marketshare picture is pretty insignificant when all factors, short-term and long-term, are considered.

I, along with most of you who have been paying attention, see that Google is buddying up with some high-profile companies in some pretty significant industries. The company is planting delicate but powerful seeds for growth that may allow the company to finally break free from the sole source of revenue it has now (and has had) -- its own search advertising text ads. Sounds sanguine, but those top-of-page and right-side text ads work to the tune of billions in revenue every year.

It's interesting to note that both Google and Yahoo! combined to capture 95% of the browser-based toolbar search market for July, according to comScore. This is a main reason why the placement of the search box, and the default search provider, in the upcoming Internet Explorer version 7 release from Microsoft -- that two-inch piece of screen real estate -- is so important. It will ship with Windows Vista next year. Forget land prices in San Francisco and New York City -- Internet Explorer trumps them all.

Brian White has worked in various executive positions in technology and telecommunications and now focuses on editing and writing.