40% of Americans Use Search Engines

By: Ann M. Mack (Adweek IQ) Nearly 40% of Americans, or 114.5 million people, used a search engine during January, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

That figure represents 76% of the active online U.S. population. Each user spent an average of nearly 40 minutes using search engines during the month.

Google topped the charts as 59 million people used its search engine last month, the research firm reported. Meanwhile, Yahoo! Search attracted 46 million visitors in January, while MSN Search welcomed 45 million.

Rounding out the top five were AOL Search and Ask Jeeves with 23 million and 13 million unique users, respectively.

"With the big search players having recently updated their search capabilities, Internet users should expect to find even better search results from the major search engines in the near future," said Jason Levin, an analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings, a part of Adweek parent VNU.