Google remained the most popular search engine in the U.S., attracting 48.5 percent of all searches conducted in February, reports Techtree, citing the latest Nielsen/NetRatings report. In second place was yahoo with 22.5 percent of searches, followed by MSN in third with 10.7 percent of U.S. searches. Fourth-place AOL garnered 6.6 percent, and My Way Search, coming in fifth, accounted for 2.7 percent.

Search shares were relatively similar to those for January, with the top players gaining or losing less than one percentage point.

The total number of searches reached 5.3 billion in February, up 39 percent from 3.8 billion in February 2005, writes the Inquirer, which quotes Michael Lanz, Nielsen/NetRatings vice-president for search industry solutions, as saying the number of people searching had not changed significantly, although they are conducting more searches.

In February, users conducted, on average, 43.1 searches, up 30 percent from 33.2 searches in the year-earlier period - although the number of unique searchers was up only 6 percent, reports Internet Retailer.

Image search had the strongest year-over-year growth, at 91 percent. Google accounted for 71.9 percent of image searches in Februaru, followed by Yahoo (19.1 percent), Ask.com (3.5 percent), MSN (2.3 percent) and AOL (1.4 percent).

"Increasing broadband penetration, which allows users to download large image files easily and efficiently, and the rising popularity of social networking sites have contributed to the increase in image searchers," Lanz said in a statement.