WebProNews

February's over, and according to new comScore statistics, almost all of the major search engines should be glad to put it in the past.  Microsoft and Yahoo both saw a shrink in market share, and Google's query growth was less impressive than it's been in previous periods.

Search Engines Not So Hot In February

Only Ask seems to have made it out okay.  Om Malik, with a little help from Citi's Mark Mahaney, reports that the company's share of the search market rose to reach 4.6 percent, which by its standards, isn't bad at all.

Meanwhile, to return to Ask's competitors, Yahoo's share fell to 21.6 percent, while Microsoft's reached 9.6 percent.  Google managed to corner 59.2 percent of the market, but the discouraging news about query growth dogged its gain.

"Google's U.S. query growth of 26 percent marked a deceleration vs. 37 percent growth in January and 40 percent growth in Q4," writes Malik.  Since February's a short month (even in a leap year), a small drop wouldn't have been shocking, but this is bigger than seems reasonable.

Of course, February was unkind to Google in another way, as well.  The company's stock dropped by about $45 over the course of the month.  Microsoft's shares lost $3.25 each, and Yahoo dropped just 60 cents.