The U.S. is still the largest search market worldwide, while Google is still in the commanding position in the global search market, according to comScore.
“The global search market continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, with both highly developed and emerging markets contributing to the strong growth worldwide,” said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president.
“Search is clearly becoming a more ubiquitous behavior among Internet users that drives navigation not only directly from search engines but also within sites and across networks. If you equate the advancement of search with the ability of humans to cultivate information, then the world is rapidly becoming a more knowledgeable ecosystem.”
The total global search market had more than 131 billion searches of people 15 or older in December 2009, which is a 46 percent increase in the past year. To break down the numbers, it represents more than 4 billion searches a day, 175 million per hour and 29 million per minute. The U.S. is the largest individual search marketing in the world with 22.7 billion searches, about 17 percent of searches globally.
Google sites were the top search property worldwide with 87.8 billion searches in December, 66.8 percent of the global search market. Google sites saw a 58 percent increase in search query volume over the past year. Yahoo sites ranked second globally with 9.4 billion searches, which is up 13 percent.