The Global Stats data reported by independent website analytics provider StatCounter has revealed that, in December, Google achieved 75.2 percent of U.S. search referrals. This was followed by Bing (12.5 percent) and Yahoo! (10.4 percent).
StatCounter also reported that in the same month, Yahoo! earned its highest search share in the U.S. in more than five years. This is in contrast to Google's lowest monthly share to date.
According to StatCounter, Yahoo! had a significant search share increase among Firefox 34 users. The data, which was released on Dec. 2, 2014, showed that from the previous 9.64 percent, Yahoo! earned 29.4 percent in search share in the U.S. Google dropped significantly from 82.14 percent to 63.46 percent. Bing also saw a slight drop from 6.45 percent to 5.81 percent.
When it came to the percentage of mobile share, StatCounter reported that Yahoo! registered 10.9 percent; Bing had 5.6 percent; and Google garnered almost 84 percent. On Jan. 27, the company will have to report on both the quarterly revenues and 2014 full-year revenues.
The release of the December stats coincides with the same period when Mozilla made Yahoo! the default search engine among Firefox 34 users in the U.S. The Yahoo!-Firefox deal, which was announced in November, had so far resulted in a significant gain in the U.S. search share for Yahoo! The latter is touted as having earned its "highest U.S. search share since 2009."
"The move by Mozilla has had a definite impact on U.S. search," said Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter. "The question now is whether Firefox users switch back to Google."
In the U.S., Firefox users took up a little over than 12 percent of Internet usage in December. The deal with Yahoo! ended the browser's 10-year relationship with Google.
StatCounter is an independent website analytics provider that also offers a free option to various entities such as charities, the self-employed, bloggers, agencies and companies looking into measuring the activity on their forum, blog or website. The company's key features include independence, ease of use and the unique capacity to view real-time visits of individuals.
StatCounter gathers the Global Stats data on more than 15 billion page views every month of more than 3 million websites.
