Nielsen//NetRatings today announced that according to their data, Yahoo!, MSN and Google led the online search category for February 2002.
NetRatings says that Yahoo! Search took the No. 1 spot as
the top ranking search engine, attracting more than 35 million visitors in February, each spending an average of 9 minutes and 14 seconds on the site. MSN Search claimed the silver, with 32 million
surfers spending an average of 8 and a half minutes on the site. Google took third place with 27 million visitors, who spent a whopping 26 minutes on the site on average.
Rounding out the top 5
list, more than 24 million surfers logged on to AOL Search while 11 million surfers searched the Internet using Ask Jeeves.
“Search engines continue to be the 'go-to' destination on the Web, with
new features and services being added on a regular basis,” said Lisa Strand, director and chief ecommerce analyst at NetRatings “As fee-based services are gradually incorporated and competition
between the various search engines intensifies, it's becoming increasingly important to compare search-specific traffic at various online destinations.”
The study also reported on the top ranking
brands and channels for Apparel and Beauty, Automotive, Computer Hardware Manufacturers, Finance, Insurance and Investment, Multi-category Commerce and Multi-category Travel. VictoriasSecret.com,
Kelley Blue Book, Hewlett Packard, Yahoo! Finance, Amazon and Expedia took top honors respectively.