Nielsen Announces May 2009 U.S. Search Share Rankings

Total Searches Increasing 20 Percent Year-Over-Year

New York, NY, June 16, 2009 -- Nielsen reports May 2009 data for the Top U.S. Search Providers. Total U.S. searches increased 20.3 percent year-over-year, from 7.8 billion in May 2008 to 9.4 billion in May 2009 (see Table 1).

Searches represent the total number of queries conducted at the provider. Example: An estimated 6.0 billion search queries were conducted at Google Search, representing 63.2 percent of all search queries conducted during the given time period.

Example: The data indicates that 57.2 million home and work Internet users visited at least one of the Wikimedia Foundation-owned sites or launched a Wikimedia Foundation-owned application during the month, and each person spent, on average, a total of 20 minutes and 11 seconds at one or more of their sites or applications. The parent level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single company or division. The brand level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content.

Table 1: Top 10 Search Providers for May 2009, Ranked by Searches (U.S.)

Source: Nielsen MegaView Search
* A year-over-year comparison is not possible because of a definitional change to Yellow Pages Search.

Table 2: Top 10 Parent Companies/Divisions for May 2009 (U.S., Home and Work)

Source: Nielsen NetView

Table 3: Top 10 Web Brands for May 2009 (U.S., Home and Work)

Source: Nielsen NetView

Table 4: Average U.S. Internet Usage, Combined Home & Work, Month of May 2009

Source: Nielsen NetView

Source: The Nielsen Company