Google's share of U.S. searches in July declined one percent from the previous month, ending its impressive 11-month run of consecutive gains, reports comScore Networks.

Google nevertheless dominated July search share with 43.7 percent, followed by Yahoo sites - which posted modest market share gains for the second consecutive month - with 28.8 percent of U.S. searches, according to comScore. Microsoft sites remained in third position with 12.8 percent share of searches; Time-Warner/AOL network (5.9 percent) and Ask network (5.4 percent) each showed modest market share gains versus the previous month.

Americans conducted 6.3 billion searches online in July, down 2 percent from June, reflecting seasonal declines. Growth in search query volume rose 30 percent compared with July 2005.

Google sites led the pack with 2.7 billion search queries performed, followed by Yahoo sites (1.8 billion), MSN-Microsoft (802 million), Time-Warner/AOL network (366 million), and Ask network (338 million).

Google and Yahoo continued their dominance in toolbar searches, combining for more than 95 percent of the market in July. Google accounted for 50.3 percent of toolbar searches; Yahoo accounted for 46.2 percent.