SAN FRANCISCO -- Web search leader Google Inc. in April showed a sharp gain in market share among U.S. Web search users, taking business from its three closest rivals, research firm comScore Inc. said on Friday.
Shares of Google jumped 1.7 percent, or $8.03, to $482.36 in Nasdaq trading after the independent online audience measurement firm released data showing Google held 49.7 percent of the U.S. search market, up 1.4 percentage points over March.
By contrast, the No. 2-ranked Web search provider, Yahoo Inc. saw its U.S. search share in April fall 0.7 points to 26.8 percent. Microsoft Corp.'s sites lost 0.6 percentage points to 10.3 percent, comScore data showed.
IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask.com fell 0.1 percentage points in April to 5.1 percent of the U.S market, it said.
The research firm releases data monthly and is the most widely accepted measure of the Web search market competition.
Google's 1.4 percentage point gain matched the combined losses of 1.4 percentage points by Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask. Google has gained month by month over the past two years, taking share from rivals in 21 of the past 24 months.
The 1.4 point gain in Google's April market share was only exceeded by the 1.5 percentage point jump Google enjoyed last November, according to comScore data.
Time Warner Inc. sites, which include its AOL unit, held steady at 5.0 percent, the monthly survey of search activity showed.
U.S. Web users performed 7.3 billion searches in April, 11 percent more than a year earlier. Google sites attracted 3.6 billion searches by U.S. users during April, comScore said.
Outside of the United States, various surveys put Google's share of the Web search market at 60 percent or better.
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