The total number of searches had grown 33% from the previous year, with web users conducting an average of nearly 88 searches during the month, research firm ComScore said.

 

Google sites fielded nearly 17 billion of these searches, increasing its market share to 44.1% from 33.5% in July 2008, during ComScore's last review of the market.

 

Google also dominated the local search markets of Australia, with 83.4% of local searches, India (89.1%), Japan (47.5%), Malaysia (71.1%), New Zealand (80.5%), and Singapore (72.3%).

 

Baidu's users conducted 8.23 billion searches, compared to 7.41 billion in July last year. The company unsurprisingly maintained its dominance in its local Chinese market, where it held a 63% market share.

 

Yahoo had a 13.8% share of the region’s market, followed by Korea's Naver.com with 5.1% and Microsoft sites with 2.8%.

 

Naver led the Korean market, with a 49.3% share. Yahoo took the top spot in Hong Kong, where it had a 58.9% share, and Taiwan, with 65.4%.