Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Bing search engine accounted for 15 percent of search queries in the United States last month, up from 14.8 percent the month before. This puts it just 0.1 percent behind beleaguered Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), which slipped to 15.1 percent from 15.2 percent, according to statistics from comScore. The comScore figures also showed dominant search engine Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) down 0.2 percent to 65.4 percent.

According to Search Engine Land, the numbers reflect only explicit search queries and do not include mobile search queries and components like "slideshows and certain Google Instant Search queries."

The same report pegged Bing at just 11.8 percent last year, with Yahoo commanding a healthier 16.4 percent. The larger market share since garnered by Bing is likely a result of its continued technical refinements and integration with social networking service Facebook to include friends' input.

In the meantime, Yahoo shares took a dip after Goldman Sachs advised investors to divest of the company's stock last week.

For more:
- check out this article at Bloomberg
- check out this article at Search Engine Land

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