Google continues to dominate searches

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 9 (UPI) -- Google Inc. continued to record more U.S. Internet searches in June than all of its competitors combined, an Internet researcher group said Thursday.

Hitwise, an Experian subsidiary, said Google handled 74.04 percent of all U.S. Internet searches in the four weeks that ended June 27.

Searches on Yahoo! dropped 17 percent compared to a year ago, but came in second with 16.19 percent of the searches. Bing captured 5.25 of the market, while Ask.com received 3.15 percent of the search requests.

Hitwise also said longer search queries have become more popular with searches involving five- to eight-word queries rising 8 percent, while searches with eight words or more increased 16 percent.

Shorter searches -- four words or less -- declined 2 percent, the researchers said.

From a business point of view, searches remain "the primary way" searchers find their way around, Hitwise said.

More than 28 percent of all automotive industry hits originated with engine searches in June, while more than 46 percent of all health and medical industry hits came from searches.

For Business and Finance, Entertainment, and Online Video , the number of hits that originated from searches grew more than 10 percent in the past year, Hitwise said.