May 22, 2008, 19:04 GMT
San Francisco - Google increased its share of US Internet search traffic in April, as its two closest rivals Yahoo and Microsoft failed to reach an agreement on a merger that might have helped them cut the company's lead.
According to figures released Thursday by researcher ComScore the company handled 61.6 per cent of search queries in April, compared with 59.8 per cent in March. Yahoo had 20.4 per cent of searches, down from 21.3 per cent, while Microsoft's share slipped to 9.1 per cent from 9.4 per cent.
The results underscored the challenge facing Microsoft and Yahoo in attempting to thwart Google's dominance of online advertising and software.
Microsoft broke off its takeover talks with Yahoo on May 3 after the online portal rejected its 47.5 billion dollar offer as undervaluing the company. Microsoft on Wednesday launched a new search initiative called Cashback which grants users a 6 per cent rebate if they buy products they find through the company's Live Search application.
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