Reuters has reported that Yahoo!'s chief executive Carol Bartz was fired over the phone by the Chairman of the Board.

 With Microsoft doing little to launch its new search engine, Bing.com, in New Zealand, Google's out-size local market share continues - at least according to statistics Hitwise has collected from its panel of 460,000 Kiwi surfers.

The Australian-based market researcher's May figures show the US and NZ iterations of Google holding 91.5% marketshare - actually down a snick from April's 92.5%, but still miles ahead of the 60% to 70% that the search giant holds in most territories.

Yahoo’s reported revenues for the third quarter was down 12% to $US1.58 billion on the same figure for last year ($US1.79 billion) but the online portal tripled its net income for the same period, it was announced today.

The company's shares (NAS: YHOO) were up 6% in after hours trading following the unexpectedly strong result.

Net revenues excluded commission paid to advertising partners for the period to September 30, Yahoo reported.

Microsoft’s Bing search engine has grown for the second consecutive month, rising to 8.9% from 8.4%, while Google and Yahoo both lost 0.3% each.

ComScore’s latest US figures showed search leader Google declining to 64.7% from 65% in June, and second-ranked Yahoo easing to 19.3%, from 19.6%, though they remain an order of magnitude ahead of Microsoft’s product, which grabbed 8% market share in May when it launched.

Shares fall 12% as the two companies confirm details of a 10-year search ad alliance to take on Google.