Google increased its share of the U.S. Internet search engine market in October, taking share away from rivals Yahoo and Microsoft, according to market researcher ComScore.

Google widened its lead over the competition by winning 58.5 percent of all U.S. searches last month, up 1.5 percentage points over September. Yahoo took second place with 22.9 percent of the search market, down from 23.7 percent, while third ranked Microsoft dropped to 9.7 percent from 10.3 percent.

Ask Network remained steady at fourth place with 4.7 percent of the U.S. search market in October, while Time Warner Network dropped a tad to 4.2 percent from 4.3 percent a month earlier, ComScore reported.

Google captured 6.1 billion of the 10.5 billion Internet searches Americans conducted in October, ComScore said, far more than second place Yahoo's 2.4 billion.

Search site October, 2007 September, 2007 Point change

Google 58.5 percent 57 percent +1.5

Yahoo 22.9 percent 23.7 percent -0.8

Microsoft 9.7 percent 10.3 percent -0.6

Ask Network 4.7 percent 4.7 percent 0

Time Warner Network 4.2 percent 4.3 percent -0.1

Total 100 percent 100 percent 0

Source: ComScore: the company only counted search engines with nearly 5 percent or more of the search market in its survey.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.