Yahoo search share gains for month of February?

Judgment made on March 13, 2009: Yahoo's surge was short-lived. Yahoo's February search share slipped to 20.6% from 21.0% in January, according to comScore. This prediction did not come true, which 76% of the community correctly judged. -- The Industry Standard

Original prediction: Yahoo has been slowly improving its U.S. search share for the past three months, according to comScore. For the month of January, Yahoo's percentage of search share gained 0.5 points from the previous month.  

Breakingviews.com notes: "Much of [Yahoo's] problems can be attributed to the decline of its search business. Yahoo’s share of the United States search market fell from 30 percent in August 2006 to a low of 19.6 percent last August, according to comScore. But it has risen every month since then, hitting 21 percent in January. Even better, its gains last month seem to have come at the expense of Google.

The company’s search revival puts Microsoft on its heels. It wants to win a part of Google’s cash-cow business, and Yahoo is showing how a company can do so. Should Microsoft approach the deal table again, Yahoo will have more leverage."

Here's  a look at U.S. search share percentage since October 2008 for the top three sites:

                    Yahoo            Google             Microsoft

Oct. 2008       20.5                63.1                  8.5

Nov. 2008       20.4                63.5                  8.3

Dec. 2008       20.5                63.5                  8.3

Jan. 2009       21.0                63.0                   8.5

Prediction: Yahoo's search share percentage rises from January 2009. comScore's metrics will be used to judge this prediction. 

Image: Yahoo