Google Inc. retained its position as the top search engine in October and increased its share of the U.S. search market over September, according to data released Wednesday by comScore Inc.

Google captured 58.5 percent of the market in October, up from 57 percent in September. Users performed 6.15 billion searches on Google sites during the month, comScore reported. Globally, 7.47 billion searches were performed on Google sites in October, compared with 6.59 billion in September.

Rival Yahoo Inc. remained a distant second to Google, capturing 22.9 percent of the market, down from 23.7 percent in September. The number of searches performed on its sites rose in October, however, to 2.4 billion from 2.23 billion in September. Worldwide, 2.58 billion searches were performed on Yahoo sites in October, up from 2.38 billion the month before.

Microsoft Corp.'s sites came in third with 9.7 percent of the U.S. search market in October -- a decline from the 10.3 percent it captured in September. Users made 1.02 billion searches on the company's sites during October, up from 969 million in September.

Internet conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask Network took fourth place with 4.7 percent of the U.S. search market, the same percentage it captured in September. Queries performed on its sites rose to 491 million in October from 444 million in the prior month.

ComScore reported Time Warner Inc., which owns AOL, took fifth place with 4.2 percent of the market, down from 4.3 percent in September. Users performed 443 million searches on its properties, compared with 405 million in September.

Businessweek.com