More and more Americans are using search engines to surf the Internet for news, weather and, of course, shopping.

A whopping 114.5 million, or 39 percent, of Americans used a search engine in January, according to a report from Nielsen//NetRatings. Those users spent nearly 40 minutes using search engines during the month. 

Why so many? “You can think of search engines as the express lane on a highway,” says Jason Levin, analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings. “It’s the fastest and most direct route to get you where you are going. The options you receive when conducting a search are by far much better than entering url after url into an address.”

The top five January search destinations were Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN Search, AOL Search and Ask Jeeves.

Table 1. Nielsen//NetRatings Top 5 Search Destinations, January 2004 (U.S., Home and Work)

   Search Destinations      Unique Audience (000)    Active Reach (%)
   __________________________________________________________________
   1. Google                           59,327                   39.37
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   2. Yahoo! Search*             45,774                   30.38
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   3. MSN Search*                 44,651                   29.63
   __________________________________________________________________
   4. AOL Search                   23,394                   15.53
   __________________________________________________________________
   5. Ask Jeeves                     12,792                   8.49
   __________________________________________________________________

  Source:  Nielsen//NetRatings NetView, January 2004
 
Not surprising, of course, is the fact that more online shoppers are finding it convenient to use search engines to locate stores and comparison shop. Online spending this past holiday season hit new highs, and the Commerce Department just reported that U.S. online retail sales jumped 26.3 percent last year to $54.9 billion, outstripping the increase in total retail sales, which were up 5.4 percent.

“Search engines are quickly becoming the first destination for online shoppers, and we expect that trend to continue through 2004,” Levin says.

Table 2. Nielsen//NetRatings Search Engines Used by Online Holiday Consumers to Find Online Stores, Ranked by Percent of Consumer Audience

   Search Engine                      Percentage of Consumer Audience
   __________________________________________________________________
   1. Google                                          36.0%
   __________________________________________________________________
   2. Yahoo! Search                             25.3%
   __________________________________________________________________
   3. MSN Search                                14.0%
   __________________________________________________________________
   4. Ask Jeeves                                    5.0%
   __________________________________________________________________
   5. AOL Shopping                               4.8%
   __________________________________________________________________

Source: Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive Nielsen//NetRatings eSpending Report, December 2003

As all the stats show, the future of search engines looks brighter than ever. They are expected to improve their technologies, “until each is better at discerning which search queries are product or e-commerce related, and which ones are more information related,” says Leslie Marable, senior analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings.

Marable says more partnerships between shopping sites and search engines are expected, as Amazon has a multi-year partnership with Google in which Google’s Web search and keyword capabilities trigger sponsored links on Amazon’s shopping site.

“Generally speaking, the competition among the major search players -- Google, Yahoo!/Overture, Ask Jeeves, MSN Search -- the leading shopping search engines -- Shopping.com, Pricegrabber, Nextag -- and the multi-product shopping repositories -- Amazon, eBay -- will intensify. As a result, each company will continue to monetize their shopping search offerings,” says Marable.

Nielsen//NetRatings found that the most important features for users was “can find relevant information,” with 52 percent of respondents ranking it No. 1. “Can get credible results” came in second at 34 percent, while “get results quickly” was third at 33 percent. Nineteen percent of users found “has an easy to use interface” important, while “is well known” and “has cool design” tied fifth at 18 percent.