Google’s search market share reportedly declined across the U.S., North America, and globally, while Bing and Yahoo experienced growth. But is this data reliable?

Updates:

May 5: Statcounter revised its data, showing that Google’s market share drop in April wasn’t as dramatic as initially reported. Meanwhile, Bing and Yahoo’s supposed gains were also adjusted. For more information, see Search Engine Land’s article: “Google’s Huge Search Market Share Loss Wasn’t Real: Data Revised.”

May 3: Statcounter added a notice on its chart stating: “We are reviewing the search data for April 2024.”

Original Story:

Statcounter’s April update on search engine market share revealed some startling figures—if they’re accurate. The numbers raised eyebrows, but there’s hope that Statcounter will confirm their validity.

By the Numbers:

U.S. Market Share:

• Google’s share dropped to 77.52% in April, down from 86.94% in March and 88.8% in April 2023.
• Microsoft Bing rose to 13.05% in April, up from 8.04% in March.
• Yahoo jumped to 7.3%, up from 2.48% in March.

Such significant shifts in a single month seem improbable. How could Bing and Yahoo gain so much ground so quickly?

Global Market Share:

• Google’s global share fell from 91.38% in March to 86.99% in April.
• Microsoft Bing’s share climbed to 5.8% in April, up from 3.35% in March.
• Yahoo’s share grew to 3.06% in April, up from 1.1% in March.

These large changes extended to other regions as well, according to Statcounter’s data.

About the Data:

Statcounter’s figures are based on over 5 billion pageviews per month from its network of more than 1.5 million websites. While data is updated daily, it undergoes quality assurance testing and can be revised within 45 days of publication.

Why It Matters:

These figures seem unlikely given the abrupt change in user behavior. Although Google has faced criticism from SEOs and others, such rapid market share shifts are unusual unless there’s an issue with data collection or quality.

What Statcounter Is Saying:

When contacted for clarification, Statcounter indicated that their team is “checking things out.”