The number of people who use search engines has increased in the past year, surpassing The number of people who use search engines has increased in the past year, surpassing the number of those who read news online, though email remains the top online task, according to a Pew Internet and American Life Project study, reports the Associated Press. Of the 94 million American adults online on a given day this fall, 63 percent said they had used a search engine, compared with 56 percent in June 2004. Email was used by 77 percent of the daily sampled population, and 46 percent said they had read news.

Search engine use correlated with access to broadband connections, with 70 percent of survey respondents who had broadband at home or work saying they had used search the day before the survey, compared with just 33 percent of those using dialup, writes MediaPost.

More than half (51 percent) of web user age 29-40 used a search engine on a typical day, compared with 42 percent of those 18-28, 39 percent of those 51-59, and 37 percent of those 41-49.

Search use was also higher among those with more money (probably because they are more likely to have broadband): 52 percent of those in households earning $75,000 or more used search engines, compared with 29 percent of those with household incomes of less than $30,000.