• May 15, 2009

Searches rose 4.4% in April 2009 in the United States, compared with the prior year, according to Nielsen Online. Google Search ranked as the No. 1 search provider, with 5.5 billion total searches, representing 64% of all search queries during the month. Yahoo Search ranked No. 2 with 1.4 billion, taking 16.3% share; and MSN/Windows Live Search followed with nearly 853 million and 9.9% market share.

The big surprise reveals Microsoft's ability to connect shoppers with retailers. Jon Stewart, research director for technology and search at Nielsen Online, wrote in a blog post. Nielsen reports that MSN/Windows Live Shopping Search became the fastest-growing shopping search provider in April 2009, partly because of the popularity of its Cashback program. The site experienced a 615% increase in visitors.

MSN/Windows Live has also performed well in translating searchers into customers, driving 12 percent of dollars to major e-commerce sites. To learn more about this search space, visit The Nielsen Wire . -- Laurie Sullivan

Table 1: Top 10 Search Providers for April 2009, Ranked by Searches (U.S.)
+--------------------------+------------+-----------+------------+
| Provider | Searches | YOY | Share of |
| | (000) | Growth | Searches |
+--------------------------+------------+-----------+------------+
| All Search | 8,608,488 | 4.4% | 100.0% |
| Google Search | 5,510,366 | 7.8% | 64.0% |
| Yahoo! Search | 1,406,416 | -2.8% | 16.3% |
| MSN/Windows Live Search | 852,998 | 7.2% | 9.9% |
| AOL Search | 321,205 | -8.8% | 3.7% |
| Ask.com Search | 181,617 | 5.9% | 2.1% |
| My Web Search | 59,110 | 3.6% | 0.7% |
| Comcast Search | 45,338 | -1.8% | 0.5% |
| Yellow Pages Search | 37,160 | N/A* | 0.4% |
| NexTag Search | 22,845 | 3.9% | 0.3% |
| Dogpile.com Search | 17,010 | 3.1% | 0.2% |
+--------------------------+------------+-----------+------------+
Source: Nielsen MegaView Search
* A year-over-year comparison is not possible because of a definitional change
to Yellow Pages Search.