Nielsen Online released this press release yesterday detailing the search market in March 2009.

The results are 16% greater than last March, at 9.5 billion in total searches. It also seems that the market is somewhat consolidating. More search activity has gone to Google, while about less searches are going to other search engines. This is especially outside the top 5 (Google, Yahoo!, MSN/Windows Live Search, AOL and Ask.com); in the category listed as other, denoting these minor search engines, share dropped from 7.3 to 3.8%.

Other than Google only one engine demonstrated share growth: Micrososft (MSN/Microsoft Live Search), growing from a 9.3 to a 10.3% share.