Filed under: Analyst reports, Industry, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) piece of the U.S. search market fell a bit in December. The benefit seemed to go to Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) according to Nielsen data. Google’s market share dropped from 57.7% in November to 56.3% last month. Microsoft moved from 12% to 13.3% over the same period.

Microsoft has been offering video games and other merchandise to get consumers to use its online products, so there is a good chance the the shift is temporary. It is a bit like getting a new toaster to open a new bank account. Consumers keep their big account with their current financial institution and move $50 to get that toaster.

The loser in all of this movement was Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). Its share continues to drop, and fell from 17.9% to 17.7%. Unlike Microsoft, Yahoo! does not have other businesses to fall back on.

Yahoo!’s problems are showing. It stock fell to $20.07 yesterday, a 52-week low. Its shares have not been below $20 since late 2003. That may be about to change.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 5:06 am and is filed under Goog news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.