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 …

While newspapers across the country face a declining number of subscribers, traffic to the top 10 online newspapers grew 16 percent in December 2008 versus a year ago, according to new research from Nielsen Online.
NYTimes.com continued to be the number one online newspaper, with 18.2 million unique visitors.  USATODAY.com and washingotnpost.com took maintained the number two and three ranks, respectively.

Site
Dec-07 (000)
Dec-08 (000)
% Change

Top 10 Online Newspapers
34,602
40,093
16

NYTimes.com
17,177
18,187
6

USATODAY.com
9,939
11,420
15

washingtonpost.com
8,478
9,470
12

LA Times
4,607
7,963
73

Wall Street Journal Online
5,409
7,235
34

Daily News Online Edition
2,956
5,883
99

Chicago Tribune
3,891
5,235
35

New York Post
2,851
4,557
60

Boston.com
4,364
4,086
-6

SFGate.com/SF Chronicle
2,785
3,503
26

Source: Nielsen Online (January 26, 2009)

“December was an extremely active month in terms …

According to Nielsen Online, there were roughly 8.6 billion Web searches conducted during December 2008 – up 19.6% over the same month last year.
Google searches accounted for nearly 63% of all Web searches, with 5.4 billion queries. Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and Ask.com rounded 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
8,623,705
19.60%
100.00%

1
Google Search
5,421,943
33.50%
62.90%

2
Yahoo! Search
1,448,140
13.70%
16.80%

3
MSN/Windows Live Search
841,457
-15.50%
9.80%

4
AOL Search
357,025
5.10%
4.10%

5
Ask.com Search
169,116
6.00%
2.00%

6
My Web Search
62,415
-11.60%
0.70%

7
Comcast Search
50,385
45.10%
0.60%

8
NexTag Search
29,219
0.70%
0.30%

9
AT&T Worldnet Search
27,176
8.00%
0.30%

10
BizRate Search
23,593
37.10%
0.30%

Source: Nielsen Online, MegaView Search

According to Nielsen Online, there were almost 8.1 billion Web searches conducted during November 2008 — up 9.6% over the same month last year.
Google searches accounted for more than 64% of all Web searches, with almost 5.2 billion queries.  Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and Ask.com rounded out the top five.

Rank
(by # of
searches)
Provider
Searches
(in 000’s)
% Growth:
Year Over Year
% of Searches

 
All Searches
8,075,564
9.6%
100%

1
Google Search
5,177,158
21.7%
64.1%

2
Yahoo! Search
1,299,306
-1.4%
16.1%

3
MSN/Windows Live Search
733,460
-16.7%
9.1%

4
AOL Search
344,465
3.6%
4.3%

5
Ask.com Search
184,059
-6.0%
2.3%

6
My Web Search
71,113
-18.3%
0.9%

7
Comcast Search
40,645
3.5%
0.5%

8
AT&T Worldnet Search
25,351
-13.3%
0.3%

9
NexTag Search
22,308
-19.5%
0.3%

10
Dogpile.com Search
17,121
-6.5%
0.2%

Source: The Nielsen Company (November 2008).

View the full press release.
Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings on CNET.com and Silicon.com, as well as in Mediaweek and …

Google was the top-ranked Web brand in November, drawing more than 127 million unique visitors during the month, Nielsen Online reported Tuesday.  Yahoo! and MSN/Windows Live rounded out the top three, with unique audiences of just over 117 million and 104 million visitors, respectively.

Rank
Brand
Unique Audience
(in 000s)
Time Per Person
(hh:mm:ss)

1
Google
127,656
1:23:40

2
Yahoo!
117,656
3:17:36

3
MSN/Windows Live
104,090
2:13:19

4
Microsoft
95,543
0:45:44

5
AOL Media Network
86,308
3:43:45

6
YouTube
81,882
1:01:33

7
Fox Interactive Media
69,838
1:39:31

8
Wikipedia
58,335
0:18:39

9
Amazon
57,682
0:25:33

10
eBay
55,438
1:43:41

Source: The Nielsen Company (November 2008).

View the full press release.
View the top U.S. Web brands for September and October 2008.

Nielsen has issued a year-end look at the most popular trends among Americans during 2008, covering everything from the top TV programs to the most popular consumer packaged goods.
Google was the most popular website with U.S. Internet users, drawing the largest audience (120 million unique visitors per month, on average) through October 2008.
As of 2008, the most prolific content downloaders in the U.S. live in California, according to Scarborough Research, a joint partnership with Nielsen and Arbitron. The San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose market had the highest percentage (32%) of adults who had downloaded …

Google was the top-ranked Web brand in October, drawing more than 122 million unique visitors during the month, Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.
Yahoo! and MSN/Windows Live rounded out the top three, with unique audiences of just over 116 million and 102 million visitors, respectively.

Rank
Top Web Brands
Unique Audience
(in 000s)
Time Per Person
(hh:mm:ss)

1
Google
122,325
1:23:07

2
Yahoo!
116,078
3:23:29

3
MSN/Windows Live
102,494
2:23:27

4
Microsoft
92,348
0:45:54

5
AOL Media Network
88,028
3:34:41

6
YouTube
77,480
0:53:25

7
Fox Interactive Media
67,182
1:37:12

8
Wikipedia
56,896
0:20:07

9
Apple
49,340
0:58:34

10
eBay
49,213
1:47:26

Source: The Nielsen Company (October 2008).

View the full press release.
View the top U.S. Web brands for September 2008.

According to Nielsen Online, Google Search accounted for more than half of all online searches in the month of September with an estimated 4.8 billion queries. Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and Ask.com rounded out the top five.

RANK
Provider
Searches (000)
% of Searches

#
All Searches
8,089,226
100.00%

1
Google Search
4,825,556
59.70%

2
Yahoo! Search
1,464,478
18.10%

3
MSN/Windows Live Search
953,504
11.80%

4
AOL Search
335,187
4.10%

5
Ask.com Search
178,217
2.20%

6
My Web Search
53,825
0.70%

7
Comcast Search
51,935
0.60%

8
AT&T Worldnet Search
30,086
0.40%

9
NexTag Search
17,775
0.20%

10
Dogpile.com Search
17,574
0.20%

Source: Nielsen Online, MegaView Search -September 2008

View the full press release.

Microsoft unseated longtime number two-ranked Web brand, Yahoo! in September, Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.
Last month, Microsoft drew almost 120.9 million unique visitors, while Yahoo! drew 116.7 million.
Google remained the top-ranked Web brand in September, with more than 127 million unique visitors, according to Nielsen.

Google and Yahoo! were again the number one- and number two-ranked Web brands in August, according to Nielsen Online.

Rank
Web Brand
Unique Audience
(in 000s)
Time Per Person
(hh:mm:ss)

1
Google
123,690
1:25:18

2
Yahoo!
117,702
3:22:31

3
MSN/Windows Live
103,953
2:21:25

4
Microsoft
93,558
12:38:39

5
AOL Media Network
93,070
3:33:46

6
YouTube
75,442
1:01:01

7
Fox Interactive Media
70,696
1:54:24

8
eBay
55,842
1:52:01

9
Wikipedia
52,987
0:21:24

10
Apple
48,766
1:10:42

Source: The Nielsen Company (August 1, 2008 – August 31, 2008).