Nielsen/NetRatings on Friday released data on the top U.S. search providers for June 2006, ranked by total number of searches. Google led with nearly half of all queries, followed by Yahoo and MSN.

Google searches totaled an estimated 2.67 billion, up 31 percent from June 2005 and accounting for 49.4 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in June, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Yahoo followed with 23.0 percent of searches, or 1.24 billion, up 29 percent a year ago. MSN was third with 10.3 percent of searches, or 556 million, an increase of only 3 percent year over year.

AOL and Ask.com rounded out the top 5, with 371 million and 126 million searches - and 6.9 percent and 2.3 percent share - respectively. My Way followed close behind Ask for sixth place, with 2.2 percent search share and 119 million searches in June.

The Nielsen/NetRatings June search figures vary somewhat from those released by comScore last week.