The use of search engines is now closing the gap on the most used site category, internet based email application, such as hotmail. The study also shows that men (53% likelihood of using a search engine on a typical day) are more likely to use a search engine than women (45%) and younger users are more prone to utilising search engines than older users.
As the number of sites on the net grows and search engines become more reliable at retuning results people may be eschewing bookmarks in favour of searches. This can be seen in the high number of navigation searches in which the user knows where they want to go and search for the site rather than go to the URL directly.
According to The New York Times, the report suggested that a likely reason for the current increase is that users can anticipate finding a: "high-performing, site-specific search engine on just about every content-rich Web site that is worth its salt,"
"With a growing mass of Web content from blogs, news sites, image and video archives, personal Web sites and more, Internet users have an option to turn not only to the major search engines, but also to search engines on individual sites as vehicles to reach the information they are looking for."
The report brings good tidings for search engines, as a number of factors, including ease of use and innovations such as the spread of broadband encourage users to make the most of online search.
