Google set to remain top target for search engine marketing

Google is set to remain the top target for online marketing after it increased the number of queries it handled during September.

Figures from comScore show the company's sites processed 10.59 billion explicit core searches from home, work and university locations last month, up three per cent on August.

Google remained well ahead of Yahoo!, which accounted for 2.68 billion queries, down two per cent from the previous survey.

Microsoft, which is taking on Yahoo!'s pay per click marketing accounts as part of the companies' Search Alliance deal, saw its site handle 1.79 billion explicit core searches in September, a three per cent increase on August.

Overall, comScore said Google accounted for 62.9 per cent of the total core searches conducted on the top five search engines last month.

Yahoo! had a 19.2 per cent share and Microsoft was on 12.5 per cent.

The top five was completed by the Ask Network on 3.4 per cent and AOL on two per cent.