WebProNews

Internet users may be using Google to sift through all the world's information, but a slightly higher percentage of online shoppers start their trips on Yahoo and MSN.

Early in December, online research firm Hitwise said Google sent Web retailers 10.8 percent of their visitors; Yahoo and MSN provided much smaller percentages of that traffic.

Now that the holiday shopping season has ended (http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20051228RegiftitNahJust... class=bluelink>minus any gift reselling), Hitwise has announced some different percentages. A MediaPost report about traffic to shopping and classifieds sites during Thanksgiving week showed Yahoo! Search and MSN both edged out Google in referring more shoppers to those sites.

Referral percentages worked out this way for the trio:

Yahoo! Search - 16.11 percent
MSN - 15.99 percent
Google - 14.46 percent

Comparison shopping sites were virtually dependent on search engine traffic. The report said Froogle got 80 percent of its visitors from search engines; Epinions and BizRate saw 71 and 61 percent of their visitors arrive via search.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.