Google's huge search market share loss wasn't real: Data revised

Statcounter has revised data indicating that Google took a massive hit to its search market share in April while Microsoft Bing and Yahoo made ludicrous gains.

Inaccurate data. For U.S. search market share in April, here’s what Statcounter was showing just a few days ago:

• Google fell to 77.52%, down from 86.94% in March and down from 88.88% year-over-year (YoY).
• Microsoft Bing grew to 13.05% in April, up from 8.04% in March and up from 6.43% YoY.
• Yahoo grew to 7.3%, up from 2.48% in March and up from 2.33% YoY.

Revised data. Here are the revised stats for April in the U.S.

• Google fell to 86.58%, down from 86.94% in March and 88.88% YoY.
• Microsoft Bing grew to 8.24%, up from 8.04% in March and up from 6.43% YoY.
• Yahoo grew to 2.59%, up from 2.48% in March and up from 2.33% YoY.

Google is dropping. While it wasn’t as dramatic a drop as Statcounter first reported, Google has been consistently losing U.S. search market share since August 2023, when it was at 89.03%. Google’s highest search market share in the past 12 months was 89.1% in May 2023.

• Coincidentally perhaps, Google announced Search Generative Experience last May.

Globally. Google has 90.91% search market share, according to Statcounter’s revised data. This is down from 91.38% in March and down from 92.82% YoY. Google’s highest search market share during the past 12 months globally was 93.11% last May.

• Microsoft Bing is at 3.64%, up from 2.76% YoY.
• Yahoo is at 1.13%, up from 1.11% YoY.

Still reviewing. However, Statcounter is still reviewing its search data for April 2024, according to a popup on its chart.

• This data could still change more within the next 40 days or so when it completes its period of quality assurance testing and revision, according to Statcounter.

No comment. Since acknowledging the issue to me via email, I’ve yet to hear back from Statcounter. I’ll add a comment if/when they provide one about what happened with its April data. In fairness, it is the weekend, so I plan to follow up again tomorrow (Monday).

Update, May 8: StatCounter confirms issue. A Statcounter spokesperson told Search Engine Land:

• “There was indeed an anomaly in our sample data for April. We have rerun the data now and the charts are updated.”