For the quarter, Google maintained its overwhelming lead, with 77.1 percent of the market, down slightly from a year ago. Live Search’s share dipped to 3.5 percent from 4.5 percent a year ago, while Yahoo’s share increased to 19.4 percent from 18.4 percent. Another report, from adGooroo, also showed some signs of strength for Yahoo, noting a 10 percent increase in the ranks of Yahoo’s first-page advertisers, which it suggested meant that “Yahoo may have finally hit its stride.” adGooroo also said that Yahoo’s share of advertisers jumped 6 percentage points to 25.9 percent in March, from 19.4 percent in December. Microsoft’s dropped to 12.4 percent from 16.4 percent, while Google’s share stayed flat.

How all of this impacts the Google’s quarterly financial results remains to be seen. Google reports its earnings on Thursday, followed by Microsoft and Yahoo the week after. What’s clear though is that any advertiser looking to actually run search ads should be able to get more return on their spending, since the number of searches is certainly not down.