By Stephen Shankland
Wednesday, July 16 2008 10:33 AM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044908,62043804,00.htm

Google's steadily increasing search share neared 70 percent in June in the United States, according to new figures released Tuesday by Hitwise.

Its share increased from 68.29 percent in May to 69.17 percent in June, the analyst firm said. Over the same period, Yahoo dropped from 19.95 percent to 19.62 percent and Microsoft dropped from 5.89 percent to 5.46 percent.

Fourth-place Ask.com has managed to eke out gains over the last year, though it slid from 4.23 percent to 4.17 percent from May to June.

Google crossed the 60 percent share threshold in July 2006, analyst Matt Tatham said, slid back the one month in August 2006, but has been north of 60 percent ever since September 2006.

Search share is important to the companies' business because it means there's a potentially larger inventory of search results against which advertisements can be sold.

The statistics are based on a sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users, Hitwise said.

This article was first published as a blog on CNET News.com.