Yahoo Search holds approximately 1.4 per cent of Australian search queries as of late 2025, according to StatCounter data. That makes it the third most-used search engine in Australia, behind Google (around 92%) and Bing (around 6%), and ahead of DuckDuckGo (around 1%).
That’s the number. If you landed here looking for it, there it is. Everything below is context for why it’s more interesting than it looks.
What is Yahoo’s search market share in Australia?
Yahoo holds roughly 1.4 per cent of the Australian search market share across all devices as of December 2025. To put that in a row with its neighbours:
- Google: approximately 92% of Australian searches
- Bing: approximately 6% of Australian searches
- Yahoo: approximately 1.4% of Australian searches
- DuckDuckGo: approximately 1% of Australian searches
Yahoo is a distant third. But it is still third. Not buried in the “other” slice of a pie chart nobody looks at. Third. There’s a small, stubborn dignity in that, even if Yahoo itself probably isn’t celebrating.
Is Yahoo Search still active in Australia in 2026?
Yes, Yahoo Search is still returning results in Australia in 2026. What surprises most people is that those results are powered by Bing, through a partnership that has been in place since 2009. Yahoo doesn’t maintain its own search index. When an Australian types something into Yahoo’s search bar, they’re getting Microsoft’s results dressed up in Yahoo’s interface.
Which means Yahoo’s 1.4 per cent and Bing’s 6 per cent are, underneath everything, the same technology. The index is identical. The difference is purely who’s sitting in front of it and why.
Who actually uses Yahoo Search in Australia?
This is the more interesting question, and the honest answer is: people who set up a Yahoo email address before Google had won the search wars, still check that email, and have never once questioned what happens when they type something into the bar at the top of the screen. It’s not a considered choice. It’s inertia so old it’s become indistinguishable from habit.
That sounds condescending. It’s actually commercially relevant. Inertia-based loyalty in a demographic that skews older, desktop-heavy, and settled in its purchasing patterns tends to mean you’re looking at people with disposable income who make decisions carefully rather than impulsively. The Yahoo Search audience in Australia isn’t early adopters. It’s not people who’ve downloaded three AI apps this week and have strong opinions about interface design. It’s people who find something, look at what comes up, and buy the thing that seems right. That’s not a bad crowd to be in front of, depending on what you sell.
Can you advertise on Yahoo Search in Australia?
Not directly, in any meaningful standalone sense. Yahoo Search advertising in Australia runs through Microsoft Advertising, which folds Yahoo in as part of its search partner network by default. If you’re already running Microsoft Advertising campaigns, you’re already reaching Yahoo’s audience as part of that buy, probably without thinking about it. If you’re not on Microsoft Advertising at all, Yahoo’s 1.4 per cent is not the argument that should get you there. Bing’s 6 per cent and the considerably less competitive auction environment compared to Google is a much stronger reason to have that conversation.
Yahoo just comes along with it.
Is Yahoo Search worth thinking about for Australian marketers?
As a standalone channel, no. As a quiet component of a Microsoft Advertising strategy, it’s already baked in, and there’s no good reason to actively exclude it. The volume is modest, the incremental cost is negligible, and the audience quality is reasonable if your product suits them.
The more useful thing Yahoo Search illustrates for anyone paying attention is something about how digital dominance actually ages. Yahoo was the dominant search property in Australia before Google arrived and systematically dismantled that position over the course of a decade. It has been shrinking ever since. It still has 1.4 per cent of Australian searches in 2026. Platforms that once commanded serious attention don’t vanish overnight. They compress into small, persistent audiences that nobody’s competing for, which occasionally makes them quietly efficient for the right advertiser.
Whether Yahoo’s audience is the right one for your business is a question worth spending thirty seconds on rather than none at all. The answer is probably no. But probably isn’t the same as definitely, and the thirty seconds costs nothing.