Ars Technica: Pew Internet Report – Only half of US Netizens use search engine daily

Ars Technica assistant editor Jacqui Cheng wakes us up to the fact that many Americans may be on the Internet, but they’re not surfing with the style we use in Silicon Valley.
That smacking sound you just heard? It’s the entire Googleplex smacking their lips at the growth opportunity. Jacqui’s key sentence is this: “There’s an entire 50 percent of the Internet just waiting to become daily users of one search engine or another, and that means there’s still a chance to go for the gold.”
Here’s an excerpt….
“Believe it or not, some Internet users still don’t use a search engine during the course of a typical day. That number is shrinking, however, according to new data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Almost half of all Internet users today use a search engine on an average day – a number that has increased from only a third of Internet users in 2002. The trend may seem predictable, but it also means that there’s still plenty of room for Google and its competitors to grow.
The demographics of your typical search engine user are like those of many Internet-based services. Those who search on a daily basis tend to either have a college degree or have completed some college, come from households with an income higher than $50,000 per year, and have broadband at home. The numbers are weighted slightly more toward men (53 percent versus 45 percent women) and toward the younger crowd, although the numbers for those over 50 are not tiny. After all, where would our parents and grandparents be without “The Google?” ”
Read it all here.