Google remained the top search engine in October, with more than 6.1 billion core searches representing 58.5 per cent of the US search market.

Monitoring firm comScore said that October was a strong month for overall search activity. Each of the five core search engines achieved at least five per cent growth in the number of searches conducted.

Google Sites increased its lead in the core search ranking in October with 58.5 per cent of US searches, gaining 1.5 share points on the previous month.

Yahoo Sites ranked second with 22.9 per cent, followed by Microsoft Sites with 9.7 per cent, Ask Network with 4.7 per cent and Time Warner Network with 4.2 per cent.

Americans conducted 10.5 billion searches at the core search engines in October, marking a 12 per cent increase on September.

More than 6.1 billion core searches were conducted at Google Sites during the month, up 15 per cent on the previous month, while Yahoo Sites recorded 2.4 billion searches, up eight per cent.