Google continued to dominate search in April, accounting for 71.4% of all US searches conducted in the four weeks ended May 1, 2010, up 2% from March, according to Experian Hitwise data.
Yahoo Search and Bing received 14.96% and 9.43% of April searches, respectively. Ask, which now accounts for 2.18% of searches, fell 37% during the month.
The remaining 78 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 2.03% of US searches.
Longer Searches Flat
The number of longer search queries—those averaging searches of five or more words—was unchanged from March. The number of shorter search queries—those averaging one to four words in length—was also unchanged.
Searches of two-word queries comprised the plurality of searches, amounting to 23.1%, up 1% from March.
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Search Traffic to Key US Industries
Search engines remain the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories.
Double-digit increases were recorded from March to April in the share of traffic going directly from search engines to the Automotive, Business and Finance, Entertainment, News and Media, Shopping and Social Networking categories.
Among the top 3 search engines, Google sent the most visits to Automotive, Health, Shopping, and Travel categories, while Yahoo Search registered gains in the Automotive and Shopping categories.
Bing's share registered double-digit growth in the amount of traffic sent to two categories—Health and Shopping—including a 105% increase in traffic sent to Health sites.
