MSN Search has much to be
gained from a Yahoo merger.

Google accounted for 65.98 percent of US searches in the four weeks ended January 26, while Ask.com's share — 4.21 percent — was up 19 percent year over year, according to Hitwise, writes MarketingCharts.

Yahoo Search and MSN Search received 20.94 percent and 6.90 percent shares, respectively, of searches conducted during the same period.

The remaining 48 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.97 percent of US searches.

Search engines remain the primary way internet users navigate to key industry categories, Hitwise said.

The Travel, News and Media, Entertainment, Business and Finance and Sports categories underwent double-digit increases in share of traffic coming directly from search engines, from January 2008 to January 2007.