Internet search marketshare results from November and October

There are some key Internet Search numbers out from Nielsen/NetRatings for November 2006, and we compared them to October for relevance (numbers rounded):

NOVEMBER 2006
Google 3.097 Billion searches, 31% year-over-year growth, 49.5% Share of Searches
Yahoo! 1.518 Billion searches, 27% year-over-year growth, 24.3% Shares of Searches
MSN/Live 515 million searches, -12% year-over-year growth, 8.2% Share of Searches
AOL 389 million searches, 11% year-over-year growth, 6.2% Share of Searches
Ask.com 159.6 million searches, 33% year-over-year growth, 2.6% Share of Searches

OCTOBER 2006
Google 3.022 Billion searches, 23% year-over-year growth, 49.6% Share of Searches
Yahoo! 1.456 Billion searches, 30% year-over-year growth, 23.9% Shares of Searches
MSN/Live 538.5 million searches, -8% year-over-year growth, 8.8% Share of Searches
AOL 375 million searches, 1.9% year-over-year growth, 6.2% Share of Searches
Ask.com 168 million searches, 25% year-over-year growth, 2.8% Share of Searches

So, if you wanted to try some generalities you would derive the following:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) search market share percentages leveled off to a tiny 0.1% decline, but their searches are still growing and their dominance is set. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) grew search market share and grew searches. MSN is the one faltering here. Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) AOL search is growing and its revamped strategy looks to be living up to expectations. Ask.com is still alive but numbers are leaning in the wrong direction.

A note of caution: it is not entirely realistic to use a single month-over-month of comparative data to make major conclusions on the big picture, particularly as all these search engines are making their merger changes, and search habits often change toward the end of each year.