• February 12, 2009

Google continues to expand its lead in the number of searches it performs according to data from Nielsen Online, which reported its January 2009 data for the top U.S. search providers on Wednesday.

An estimated 5.9 billion search queries were conducted at Google Search, representing 62.8% of all search queries conducted during the given time period. That represents almost 41% year-over-year growth, according to Nielsen Online.

Searches represent the total number of queries conducted at the provider.

Yahoo and MSN/Windows Live Search followed with 1.5 billion and 1.05 billion search queries, respectively, representing 16.2% and 11.2% of all search queries for the month. Yahoo grew 8.7% while MSN jumped 18.3%, reported Nielsen Online.--Tanya Irwin