NEW YORK, NY – Worldwide, those who think consumers are doing less exploring online had better think again. More than 113 billion searches were conducted in July worldwide, representing a 41% increase year-over-year, according to new data from comScore.

Google was responsible for the vast majority of search activity, with 76.7 billion searches conducted in July, which represented a 67.5% market share.

Yahoo ranked second worldwide with 8.9 billion searches, or a 7.8% share -- followed closely by Chinese search engine Baidu with 8 billion searches, or a 7% share.

Year-over-year, Google's share of all searches actually grew by 58%, while Yahoo grew by just 2%.

Trailing significantly, Yahoo's new search partner, Microsoft, was responsible for about 3.3 billion searches in July, and saw 41% growth year-over-year.

Most of the top search properties worldwide experienced significant growth in search query volume versus last year, with Russian search engine Yandex growing at the fastest rate -- 94% -- among the top ten.

Globally, Europe accounts for the most searches, but Latin America is highest in searches per searcher.

The dynamics of search behavior vary considerably across different parts of the world. Among the five global regions, Europe accounted for the highest share of searches at 32.1%, followed by Asia-Pacific -- 30.8% -- and North America -- 22.1%.

Notably, Latin America exhibited the heaviest search behavior per person with an average of 13 search usage days in July and 130 searches per searcher. Europe had the second-highest overall search volume per person -- 117 searches per searcher -- while North America exhibited the second-heaviest frequency -- 12.5 search usage days per searcher.

Copyright 2009 MediaPost Communications. All rights reserved. From http://www.mediapost.com. By Gavin O'Malley.
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