Google accounted for 71.49% of all US searches conducted in the four weeks ended Jan. 31, while Yahoo Search, Bing, and Ask.com received 14.57%, 9.37%, and 2.64%, respectively, according to Experian Hitwise.
The remaining 65 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.93% of US searches.
Below, additional search-related data issued by Hitwise.
Longer searches increase
Longer search queries, averaging searches of five to seven words in length, were up some 5% between December 2009 and January 2010; searches of eight or more words increased 6%.
Shorter search queries—those averaging one to four words—were down 1% month to month. Searches of one word comprised the majority of searches, amounting to 23.67% of all queries.
Google is greatest source of traffic to key US industries; Bing's share grows
Search engines remain the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories.
Share of traffic coming directly from search engines to the Automotive, Business and Finance, Entertainment, News and Media, Shopping, Social Networking and Sports underwent double-digit growth from Dec. 2009 to January 2010:
Among the top 3 search engines, Google sent the most visits to those four categories. Google's share of upstream traffic grew for the Automotive, Shopping and Travel categories.
Bing share underwent double-digit growth among all four categories, including a 94% increase in the Health category.
About the data: Experian Hitwise examines how 25 million Internet users around the world interact with more than 1 million websites. It operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Brazil.