(click image for larger view)

Slideshow: Clicking Through Opera 11 Browser Beta

Google and Yahoo each dropped 0.1%, as AOL continued its relentless race to the bottom of the big five search engines, losing 0.1% to finish with a total of 2% of searches in the group. Ask Network's position remained unchanged at a 3.6% share of market.

It's too soon to tell whether the latest statistics represent a trend, but it's possible that some recent actions by Microsoft -- including improving its Facebook features -- to improve its search engine experience may be bearing fruit.

"More than 16 billion explicit core searches were conducted in November," ComScore said in its monthly search engine report. "Google sites ranked first with 10.6 billion searches, followed by Yahoo sites in second with 2.6 billion, and Microsoft sites in third with 1.9 billion." The Ask Network recorded 580 million explicit core searches, and AOL hit 327 million.

The new search figures include the impact of Google Instant Search, the search feature that gives users real-time results as they type queries.

Google has dominated search engine results in recent years, but it has attracted scrutiny from regulatory agencies, including the European Union, that investigate market-dominating firms.

SEE ALSO:

Google Faces EU Antitrust Inquiry

Bing Search Gets The Facebook Effect

Our trending survey shows that IT pros have warmed considerably to Windows 7. Now the trick is selling an upgrade to the business, ensuring app and hardware compatibility, and easing users off XP with minimal heartache. Here's how. Download the report here (registration required).