According to Nielsen Online, there were approximately 9.5 billion Web searches conducted during January 2009, up an impressive 27.5 percent from January 2008.
Google searches accounted for 62.8 percent of all Web searches with more than 5.9 billion queries.  Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Ask.com continued to round out the top five.
Searches represent the total number of queries conducted at the provider.

Rank
Provider
Searches (000)
YOY Growth
Share of Searches

 
All Searches
9,461,583
27.5%
100.0%

1
Google Seach
5,945,064
40.8%
62.8%

2
Yahoo! Search
1,528,779
8.7%
16.2%

3
MSN/Windows Live Search
1,057,677
18.3%
11.2%

4
AOL Search
381,769
8.9%
4.0%

5
Ask.com Search
181,205
1.0%
1.9%

6
My Web Search
66,649
-6.9%
0.7%

7
Comcast Search
50,311
25.8%
0.5%

8
Yellow Pages Search
25,392
NA*
0.3%

9
AT&T Worldnet Search
24,061
-2.0%
0.3%

10
NextTag Search
23,145
30.0%
0.2%

Source: Nielsen Online, MegaView Search

* A year-over-year comparison is not possible because …

With Valentine’s Day this weekend, many curious and lovelorn singles are turning to online dating sites to find that special someone. And if advertising by those sites is any indication, this may be a real golden age for online hook-ups.
An analysis of ad expenditures by online dating sites shows significant year-to-year increase since 2003. In 2007, when the most recent full-year data is available, advertising for these sites topped out at almost $193 million. And with data complete through the first three quarters of 2008, last year’s online dating ad …

Despite the proliferation of mobile devices and online video, television continues to capture the most viewers, according to recent Nielsen research.  But how people are watching television has evolved and it is these advances that have made TV more relevant than ever.  They aren’t necessarily “watching TV” on TV – they are increasingly likely to watch TV programs on the Internet or on their cell phones, according to an article in the The New York Times.
The average U.S. household has 2.7 people and 2.9 TVs.  For the quarter ended September …

Ken Cassar
I’ve been preparing for our upcoming Webinar on Retail Coping Strategies, where we will provide constructive advice to retailers on how they can best cope with the challenging retail environment that we’re in. This has led me to think about companies that are holding up well through the recession.
There are three companies that I’m particularly interested in: Walmart, Amazon, and Hyundai. Walmart’s US sales grew by 6.7 percent, profits by 11 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. Amazon just announced that Q4 2008 sales were …

Jon Gibs, Nielsen Online,
For today’s webinar, “All Brand Advertisers Are Not Created Equal: Attracting and Retaining Brand Advertisers to the Web” Nielsen Online CEO, John Burbank and I will talk about the changing nature of online advertising, a new way to look at advertisers, and the attributes of the sites that are doing the best job of attracting long-term partners. As a bit of a preview, I wanted to briefly discuss the subject of long-term partners. When we take a look at Fortune 1000 advertisers and their advertising habits online, …

Surfing is big in Australia — but it’s not limited to the waves.  The online audience there continued to show steady growth in 2008, increasing 3.8 percent from 2007, according to Nielsen.  However, it is clear that the growth has started to slow as that country approaches saturation coverage.  Demographically, audience growth was strongest among those 65 years and older — almost 26 percent.  Females now outnumbered males in the online population (50.19 vs. 49.81) although the average male still uses the Internet more often and for a longer period …

Nielsen’s Pete Blackshaw has been following consumer buzz in blogs, Twitter tweets and more surrounding the peanut butter Salmonella scare. In this video, he offers practical defensive branding tips and tactical advice.

Related Post:
Consumers Spread Word Of Peanut Butter Recall Online

Josh Tanz
The music industry has seen vast changes since 2000. Album sales have dropped precipitously year over year while both legal and illegal online music downloads have skyrocketed. Apple’s iTunes store has sold over 6 billion songs while the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued over 35,000 illegal music content distributors.

In the last month, though, the music industry has entered a new era. Beginning December 19th the RIAA stopped issuing new lawsuits. On January 6th, Apple announced it will allow unlimited copying of their files. Essentially, …

Alex Burmaster
This article was originally featured in New Media Age Magazine.
The downturn in the economy has effectively rebooted the growth of the internet in terms of the time people spend online and the number of sites they visit. Over the first nine months of the year, people weren’t spending more time online than they did in the corresponding nine months the previous year. The average year-on-year growth each month, in terms of average time online per person, was just 1%.
Between March and June 2008, people actually averaged less time online …

Following Nielsen Online’s BuzzMetrics recognition as an “industry leader” in the “The Forrester Wave: Listening Platforms, Q1 2009,” Pete Blackshaw, executive vice-president of Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services, discussed the factors that drive success when it comes to listening.

Forrester’s report is available for download via Nielsen Online.
Read the full press release.