Google Sees Record Search Queries In Second QuarterGoogle Sees Record Search Queries In Second Quarter

Leading search engine Google Inc. attracted a record amount of traffic in the second quarter, but rivals Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN also saw more Internet visitors, a web-tracking firm said Wednesday.

Mountain View, Calif.-based, Google ended the quarter with 37 percent of search queries, the highest percentage since ComScore Networks started tracking search engines in December 2003. In the same period a year ago, Google had 35.3 percent.

The number of search queries on Yahoo, Sunnyvale, Calif., rose to 30.4 percent from 28.2 percent in 2004, while No. 3 MSN saw an increase to 15.6 percent from 14.5 percent. Oakland, Calif.-based, Ask Jeeves, the No. 5 search engine, nearly doubled its traffic to 6.1 percent from 3.1 percent.

Dulles, Va.-based, America Online Inc., a division of Time Warner Inc., was the only company in the top five to see a decline in search queries, falling to 9.2 percent from 12.9 percent a year ago.

"At this point, all three -- Google, Yahoo and MSN -- are growing," ComScore spokesman Graham Mudd said. "What's really changing is that they're growing at the expense of AOL and small search engines that fall below the top five."

Overall, the top five vendors accounted for 98.3 percent of all search queries, compared with 94 percent n the same period last year.