39% of Americans Use Search Engines

Almost half of ALL Americans use search engines reports that 114.5 million or 39 percent of Americans used a search engine during January 2004. The 114.5 million unique users, representing 76 percent of the active online U.S. population, each spent nearly forty minutes using search engines during the month.

That´s 39% of ALL Americans, not just computer users, but every person in the US. That´s a large percentage and will probably grow greatly in the next 3 years, as search engine usage and paid search advertising is predicted to grow.

Nielsen//NetRatings also reports the top five search destinations were Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN Search, AOL Search and Ask Jeeves during January 2004. Fifty-nine million users or 39 percent of active Internet users visited Google.

Thirty percent or 46 million visitors used Yahoo! Search, while 45 million or 30 percent went to MSN Search. Rounding out the top five were AOL Search and Ask Jeeves with 23 million and 13 million unique
users respectively.