Does whipping on the Associated Press never get old? Apparently not.

Here’s a bit from the opening of today’s AP report on the annual Sun Valley media and technology conference.

But this year both media and online leaders are grappling with the Internet’s increasing fragmentation. And they’re all looking for more advertising revenue online, where media companies have recouped only a small fraction of what they lost in print and where Web companies want to maximize their investments.
Even the top Internet companies – save maybe Google Inc. — are seeing revenue growth slowing as online audiences fragment. And they worry that, without steady access to high-quality content, they won’t be able to attract enough viewers to keep growing fast.

Why the “maybe”? Why not, you know, go find out? There’s a great place to find news about Google: Google. And 60 seconds of Google-fu produces the data: Google’s revenue growth is indeed slowing: Revenue grew 63 percent in the first quarter of 2007 but only 42 percent in the first quarter of 2008, while their profit margin remained flat at 30 percent. Here are the Google Q1 reports for 2007 and 2008. The Q2 report will be released later this month.

So, Jeremy Herron, AP business writer, this is your new sentence: “Even the top Internet companies – including Google — are seeing revenue growth slowing as online audiences fragment.” You’re welcome!

This of course begs the question of whether Google’s audience is fragmenting. Where should readers go to check that out? AP or Google? The winner is … USA Today, via Google:

Google’s share of search jumped to a record 61.8% in May, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, according to measurement firm ComScore Media Metrix. Yahoo’s share was 20.6% (also up 0.2 percentage points). Microsoft’s share was 8.5%, down 0.6 percentage points.

Which actually is news to me. I had assumed that Google’s share was probably 80 or 90 percent — 61 is surprisingly low. People still use Yahoo? And Microsoft’s search? What, no Hotbot?