NEW YORK, NY – The Pew Internet and American Life Project is reporting a sharp increase in domestic search engine use this year over 2004, with approximately 60 million American adults now making daily use of search engines.The report, based on data from telephone surveys conducted by Pew, and far more extensive tracking done by comScore Media Metrix, found that from September of 2004 to September of this year, the number of average daily search engine users climbed from 49.3 million to 60.7 million; an increase of over 22%.

According to the Pew report, Google topped the engines with over 75.2 million unique visitors in October 2005, followed by Yahoo with 68.03 million, and MSN Search at 49.7 million.

The Pew phone survey focused on how users spend their time online, and asked them what online activities they engaged in on a daily basis. Email topped the list, as usual, with 77% of users saying they used email daily. Search engine use was second on the list at 63%, followed by getting news (46%), job-related research (29%), instant messaging and online banking (both scored 18%).

Evidently, the Pew survey didn’t ask people about their porn surfing habits; surfing porn was not among the daily activities listed in their report.

Other findings and conclusions contained in the Pew report:

A search engine user is an active user – “Those who use search engines on an average day tend to be heavy internet users,” the report states. “They are much more likely to have broadband connections than dial-up connections; to log on to the internet several times a day; and to have spent considerable time online during the day.”

It’s a young demographic – “Those using search engines on a typical day are also more likely to be in their 30s – members of the GenX cohort – than any other generational cohort.” Specifically, the report shows that the top two usage groups (among adults) are the 18-28 (42% use the web daily) and 29-40 (51%) age ranges.

More demographic conclusions you probably won’t find surprising (and have likely heard before) – “They are also more likely to be socially upscale – with college degrees and living in households earning more than $75,000. Finally, they are also more likely to be white or English-speaking Hispanics than to be African-American.”