• December 20, 2006

Web users conducted approximately 3.1 billion searches on Google last month--a 31% increase from last year, according to new data by Nielsen//NetRatings. Google's total market share of searches is 49.5%, according to the media measurement company. Yahoo garnered around half as many searches--1.52 billion--marking a 27% increase from last year. Yahoo's overall search share came to 24.3%. With just 515.5 million searches--marking a 12% year-over-year drop, MSN again lost market share, with a total search share of 8.2%. MSN saw search activity dwindle from October, when the company accounted for 538 million searches, or 8.8% of the total. Separately, Merrill Lynch this week also reported that Google seemed poised to gain ground on Yahoo and MSN in search queries--and that industry estimates show Google query growth of 30-50%.

--Wendy Davis