Search has long been a form of personal journalism. In our case nearly half of our page views come from search engines like Google and Yahoo.
Now the Pew Internet & American Life Project has taken a look at the rise of search as an activity in the U.S. It finds that nearly 50 per cent use search every day, only 10 points less than those who use e-mail. About 39 per cent use the Internet for news and 30 per cent use it to find weather information.
But the search growth is what's most impressive: 69 per cent between 2002 and 2008, compared to a 15-per-cent growth rate for e-mail in that period.
Education and income levels of searchers are high. Younger men are the principal cohort. Pew concludes that the rise of broadband connections and information-rich engines has a lot to do with the increase in the activity.