Google has seen its UK search market share increase for the first time since October, according to figures provided by StatCounter Global Stats.
In contrast, Bing, which had previously seen its share rise in line with Google’s decline, suffered a reversal of fortunes and saw its share drop from 7.16% to 7.09%.
February saw Google’s share dip below 88% to 87.97%, its lowest user percentage at any time in the last two years. However, it has now climbed back up to 88.12% after a strong month.
Yahoo continues to flounder on 3.61%, despite trying to tempt Firefox users away from Google towards the end of the month.
Google continues to maintain a sizeable section of the UK mobile share market, with 93.79% compared to Yahoo’s 4.6% and Bing’s 1.37%.
March search news
In addition to clawing back some of its market share, Google also announced a number of developments. These included improvements to Knowledge Graph and Webmaster Tools, as well as the launch of an AdWords app for Android and the upcoming arrival of the much-discussed mobile algorithm.
Site owners were also warned against using doorway pages to try and manipulate search visibility.
March search trends
The solar eclipse attracted a lot of search volume during March, as people rushed to catch a glimpse of the rare event. Searches included the time of the eclipse and places to get special glasses in order to view the phenomenon safely.
Controversial former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson also figured highly, experiencing two search peaks during the month. The first came when the media first published details of the now infamous “fracas” involving Clarkson and producer Oisin Tymon, and the second when BBC Director General Tony Hall elected to sack the star in the wake of the incident.
Other entertainment stories that attracted interest during March were the BBC’s record-breaking Comic Relief show and pop star Zayn Malik quitting boyband One Direction.
The UK search market share stats for March have been outlined below:
| UK Search Engine | March 2015 share (%) | February 2015 share (%) | Change |
| 88.12 | 87.97 | 0.15 | |
| Bing | 7.09 | 7.16 | -0.07 |
| Yahoo | 3.61 | 3.79 | -0.18 |
| Others | 1.18 | 1.08 | 0.1 |