Results of a study by SearchIgnite, a search advertising technology firm, show that Google lost share of search ad dollars to Yahoo in the first quarter of 2008.

According to The New York Times, the report shows that spending by search advertisers on Yahoo grew 57 percent, while spending on Google grew only at about half that rate. That means Google's total share of search ad dollars declined slightly to 70.4 percent, while Yahoo's rose to 24.2 percent; Microsoft's declined slightly to 5.4 percent.

"It was unusual and unexpected," Roger Barnette, president of SearchIgnite, told the Times.

However, comScore has been reporting on declining numbers for Google as well. In February, the metrics firm reported that Google's January paid clicks dropped by 7 percent, and they only increased by 3 percent in February -- which some analysts declared was a sign of weakness in the U.S. economy.

The study comes just days before both Google and Yahoo are scheduled to report financial results for the first three months of the year.

This could bode well for Yahoo, which is trying to convince the market that Microsoft's takeover bid undervalued the company.

"If these numbers are an accurate reflection of the market, it could lead Yahoo to surpass expectations," Barnette said in the Times article. But he added that Yahoo had a particularly weak first quarter in 2007, which could make the 2008 comparison unusually flattering.