Top five engines attract nearly all search traffic

The top five search engine companies now account for over 98% of all search traffic.

According to web metrics firm ComScore Networks, Google accounted for 37% of all search queries in the second quarter of this year – up from 35.3% in the same period last year.

Both Yahoo and MSN increased their shares to 30.4% and 15.6% respectively.

AOL was the only company in the top five to see its share of search traffic fall, from 12.9% to 9.2%. Ask Jeeves almost doubled its share from 3.1% to 6.1%.

The search market is keenly fought over by the major portals because potential advertising revenue is rapidly increasing, driven by sponsored links and local business listings.

A year ago, the top five combined held 94% of the market. Their share now stands at 98.3%.