Dominated by Google, total online US searches increased 20.3% year-over-year, from 7.8 billion in May 2008 to 9.4 billion in May 2009, according to (pdf) rankings of the top search provides fromNielsen Online.
Google, which saw 6.0 billion search queries during the month, captured the largest share of all searches, at 63.2%, and experienced 28.2% YoY growth. Number-two Yahoo grew 22.3% in the same time period, while searches on MSN/Windows Live Search declined 14.4%.
My Web Search showed the strongest growth, at 44.7%, though it only has 0.8% market share.
In April 2009, 5.5 billion searches were conducted on Google.
Top 10 Parent Companies/Divisions
Nielsen also announced that Google remains #1 on the list of top 10 parent companies/divisions in May 2009. Nearly 138 million home and work internet users visited at least one of Google’s sites or launched a Google-owned application during the month. Each person spent, on average, a total of one hour and 52 minutes at one or more Google sites or applications. Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and News Corp. Online round out the top five.
As in previous months, AOL had the most time per user in May, at an average of 3 hours and 37 minutes.
The parent level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single
company or division. The brand level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content.
Top 10 Web Brands
Google, Yahoo, and MSN Windows Live were the top three web brands for May 2009, with brand unique audiences of 131.2 million, 118.9 million and 101.5 million, respectively. Microsoft and AOL Media Network round out the top five.
