WebProNews

In January, 6.8 billion searches were done in Japan, representing a 9 percent increase compared to a year ago and the highest monthly search volume on record.

Yahoo sites took the top spot in search with 3.5 billion searches during the month, up from 13 percent from the previous year, followed by Google sites with 2.6 billion searches (up 5%) and Rakuten with 153 million searches (up 38%). Excite Japan had the strongest growth of any search property in the top ten, growing 362 percent compared to a year ago to 52 million searches.

"2008 was another year of very solid growth in the search market in Japan," said Maru Sato, managing director of comScore Japan.

"Home to the third largest Internet population in the world, Japan represents a valuable market for search engines. It is also one of the more competitive search markets, with two large companies, Yahoo! and Google, each controlling a significant share of the market."

In January, searchers in Japan conducted an average of 100 searches per searcher during the month. Yahoo sites grabbed 51 percent of all search queries, followed by Google sites with 38 percent and Rakuten with 2 percent.

Yahoo sites had the highest frequency of searchers per searcher at 62, trailed by Google sites at 55 searches per searcher. Other search properties in the top ten with relatively high search engagement included NEC Corporation (24 searchers per searcher), Excite Japan (20 searches per searcher), and Nifty Corporation (13 searches per searcher