Besides Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask, Hitwise also looked at 42 smaller search engines. Overall, they accounted for only 1.70% of the U.S. market - a number that demonstrates the staggering uphill battle new entrants in the search business have to face.

These latest numbers also once again stress that, at least in the U.S., a combination of Microsoft's and Yahoo's search would create a relatively large competitor to Google. However, looking at the current trends - there is also a good chance that Google would just continue to grow while taking away market share from a combined Microhoo search engine.

[readwriteweb]