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The figures place search engines second only to email as the key Net application. On a typical day some 41 per cent of the Internet using population in the US turn to search engines, up from 31 per cent in the middle of 2004. In terms of numbers, the figure represents 59m people.

Email remains the essential online service, however, with 52 per cent of Americans checking mail on any given day.

The rise of search has been powered by local information,

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says Pew. It perhaps marks something of a milestone for Internet usage. As more and more content comes online - recently Google claimed to have trebled its index of 8bn pages, while Yahoo! claimed 19.2bn pages - users can turn to the Internet to find information close to home with a good chance of finding it.

Pew quotes data showing that people are using 'local' qualifiers, such as postcodes or addresses, to refine the search results. Google still tops the charts as the search tool of choice, with 43.7 per cent for local searches. But in terms of Internet Yellow Page sites - which offer fields to enter data such as location and business type - Yahoo! is number one, with 27.6 per cent.

The study says that much of this activity is often in combination with looking for jobs online, making travel arrangements and high street shopping.

The research is available in PDF format from the company's website.