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Microsoft’s (MSFT) efforts to bolster Bing’s market share are no longer paying off as well as they have been. After months of slight but steady increases in its market share, Bing’s share of the search market in the states and abroad fell for the first time in September. New metrics from Web analytics firm StatCounter show Bing’s share of the U.S. search market in September falling to 8.5 percent from 9.6 percent in August. Its share of the global market declined as well, slipping to 3.25 percent from 3.58 percent. Yahoo (YHOO), Microsoft’s new search partner, also suffered a loss of share. Its market share fell to 9.40 percent from 10.50 percent in the states and to 4.37 percent from 4.84 abroad. Meanwhile, Google’s (GOOG) September share rose to 80 percent from 77.8 percent in the states and to 90.54 percent from 90 percent globally.

“The trend has been downwards for Bing since mid August,” StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen said in a statement. “The wheels haven’t fallen off but the underlying trend must be a little worrying for Microsoft.”

Mmm, I doubt it. While a month of slight decline might herald the beginning of a trend, it certainly doesn’t guarantee one — especially in search where surges and declines in market share are quite common. Furthermore, we haven’t yet seen search metrics from Nielsen, comScore, and Hitwise. And all three of them showed Bing gaining share in August, a month which Statcounter claimed as showing the beginnings of a downward trend.

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