Broadband Advisor

Seventy per cent of US searches in June were done on Google's search engine, according to Web measurement figures from market research company Hitwise.

In the four weeks ending June 28, Google accounted for 69.17 per cent of all US searches, up from 63.92 per cent, or 8 per cent, from the same period a year ago, according to Hitwise.

But Google's gain led to lower numbers for other search companies. Yahoo received 19.62 percent of US searches in June, down from 21.31 per cent last year, while MSN Search received 5.46 per cent, down from 9.85 per cent in June 2007.

Ask.com, on the other hand, had better news, collecting 4.17 per cent of searches, up from 3.42 per cent a year ago, according to Hitwise.

"Google just continues to grab market share," said Hitwise spokesman Matt Tatham. "There's just no ceiling for them." And when searches on Google go up, searches on the other search engines go down, he said.

The jump in searches at Ask.com was probably because it redesigned its home page and added some new functions to its search that may have drawn people in, Tatham said.

"Search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories," Hitwise said. Year over year, the travel, news and media, entertainment, business and finance, sports, online video and social networking categories had double digit growth in traffic coming from search engines, the company said.