ONLINE SEARCHES GROW 55 PERCENT YEAR-OVER-YEAR TO NEARLY 5.1 BILLION SEARCHES IN DECEMBER 2005, ACCORDING TO NIELSEN//NETRATINGS

Google Sees Five-Point Gain in Search Share Rankings
NEW YORK– February 9, 2006 – Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, today reported that the total number of searches in the U.S. conducted across approximately 60 search engines grew 55 percent year-over-year to nearly 5.1 billion searches in December 2005 (see Table 1). There were 3.3 billion searches conducted via search engines in December 2004.

While the number of searches conducted online swelled, the number of people connecting to the Internet rose a mere three percent to 207 million people in the U.S.

“The double-digit increase in online search activity marks a significant milestone in the evolution of Internet consumer behavior,” said Ken Cassar, senior director of analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings. “Online search is the primary tool most people rely on to do everyday research.”

Table 1. Growth in Total Searches, Dec 2004 vs. 2005 (U.S.)
Dec-04 Searches	Dec-05 Searches	Percent Change
3,279,770	5,069,377	55%
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Search, February 2006

Google rose nearly six percentage points to garner a 49 percent share of all searches in December 2005 from a year prior (see Table 2). Yahoo! Search and MSN Search experienced slight declines in their search share points.