For the first time, Google accounted for more than 6 of 10 searches conducted in the U.S., according to Hitwise.

For the four weeks ended July 29, Google accounted for 60.2 percent of U.S. searches among the top 57 search engines, writes Hitwise's Bill Tancer in his blog. Yahoo Search was second in July search volume with 22.5 percent, and MSN Search was third with 11.8 percent. The top three together accounted for 94.5 percent of searches. Hitwise last released search volume data for May (see below), when Google's share was 59.3 percent, Yahoo's 22.0 percent and MSN's 12.1 percent.

The only one among the leaders to have lost search share is Microsoft's MSN, which over the last few years has promised a search surge - yet to materialize. MSN's boast last year that it would spend $300 million in marketing to help it climb to the top of the search pile has yet to materialize as well. It has made similar claims in the past, to no avail.