Google wins search users from rivals

Dallas: Google increased its share of US internet search traffic last month, widening the gap with rivals Yahoo! Inc and Microsoft Corp., researcher ComScore Inc said.

The company handled 61.6 per cent of search queries in April, compared with 59.8 per cent in March, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore said yesterday in data released to clients. Yahoo fielded 20.4 per cent of searches, down from 21.3 per cent, while Microsoft's share slipped to 9.1 per cent from 9.4 per cent.

Google's increasing lead has pushed Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer to seek an alliance with Yahoo.

Microsoft-Yahoo talk

Since scrapping a $47.5 billion takeover bid for Yahoo May 3, Microsoft offered to buy its rival's search business, two people familiar with the talks said this week.

"I don't think you put those two technologies and businesses together and all of a sudden their search is better from a consumer's perspective than Google's," Kaufman Brothers LP's Jason Avilio said.

"Google's got a brand that at this point is synonymous with search." The San Francisco-based analyst recommends buying Google shares.

Mountain View, California-based Google dropped 4.9 per cent to $549.99 at 4pm New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading after Microsoft announced a new program to win over users. Yahoo fell 15 cents to $27.33, and Microsoft lost 51 cents to $28.25.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is pushing for a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo, saying last week that he would seek to oust Yahoo's directors it they fail to make a deal with the software maker. All 10 of Yahoo's directors are up for re-election at the annual meeting on July 3.