money.cnn.com/2004/06/04/technology/porn_search.reut/index.htm
Web sites categorized as "adult" accounted for about 188 percent of all Internet visits by US users in the week ending May 29. During that time, Google garnered 27 percent of all Web visits while Yahoo Search and MSN Search received 17 percent and 11 percent respectively, Bill Tancer, vice president of research at Hitwise, told Reuters. Other large Hitwise categories include "Entertainment" at 80 percent, "Business and Finance" at 74 percent and "Shopping and Classifieds" at 7 percent. Google is moving toward an initial public offering that is expected to be a blockbuster. The three leading search providers fall into a subcategory Hitwise calls "Search Engines and Directories," which covers 1,944 Web search and directory sites, which were not included in the top search category. com is not included in the search category, but its search function is. "Search Engines and Directories," along with the "Email Services," "Net Communities and Chat," "Software" and other subcategories, make up Hitwise's "Computers and Internet" category that pulled in almost one-third of all visits.
In a separate report published late last month, Hitwise said that between August and April, Google remained the most visited search site and was alone among the three sector players in gaining market share within its subcategory. com, NexTag and Bizrate are getting fewer referrals from Web search providers -- meaning that users are either going directly to the niche sites or finding other routes to them, thereby cutting search engines out of lucrative shopping clicks. The same appears to be true for top travel sites, Tancer said.
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