LOS ANGELES--Google Inc extended its US lead in Web search in April, taking market share from rivals Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp, according to industry data released on Thursday.

Market research firm comScore Inc said Google's core Web search properties captured a record-high 61.6 percent of the US market in April, up from 59.8 percent in March.

"Google, for the most part, has continuously gained share (over the last two years)," said comScore spokesman Andrew Lipsman.

Of the top five US search providers, Google was the only company which had an increase in the number of searches in April, while Yahoo, Microsoft, Time Warner Inc's AOL network, and IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask.com all posted a decline of 5 percent or more.

Yahoo's US search market share fell to 20.4 percent in April, a 0.9 percentage point decline from March, while Microsoft's slipped to 9.1 percent from 9.4 percent. AOL dipped 0.2 percentage points to 4.6 percent and Ask dropped to 4.3 percent from 4.7 percent.