Google lost one per cent of its share of the US search market last month. Its the first time Google has slipped in almost a year, after 11 consecutive months of gains. According to market research firm comScore, 43.7 per cent of Americans’ 6.7bn searches went through Google this July, up from 36.5 percent a year ago. TimeWarner, in the rickety shape of AOL, has dropped four per cent in the last 12 months and 0.3 per cent in July. It’s now scrapping for a measly 5.9 per cent of the market. Yahoo! enjoyed a small month-on-month rise in its slice of the pie, at 28.8 per cent, comfortably taking second place ahead of MSN. Yahoo! had a 30.5 per cent share in July 2005. Yahoo’s challenge to Google was strongest via toolbar searching, with 46.2 per cent to Google’s 50.3 per cent.