comScore, Inc. released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. In December 2008, Americans conducted 12.7 billion core searches, a 3-percent increase versus November.

Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in December with 63.5 percent of the searches conducted, unchanged from November, followed by Yahoo! Sites (20.5 percent), Microsoft Sites (8.3 percent), Ask Network (3.9 percent), and AOL LLC (3.8 percent).

Americans conducted 12.7 billion searches at the core search engines, up 3 percent from November. Google Sites handled 8 billion core searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.6 billion and Microsoft Sites with 1.1 billion.

December U.S. Expanded Search Rankings

In the comScore December 2008 analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google Sites led with 11.2 billion searches, up 4 percent versus November. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 2.7 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites with 1.1 billion and AOL LLC with 740 million.