Google powers 72% of all U.S. web searches in February

The question has come up before, and here it is again: should Yahoo! continue trying to concentrate on competing with Google in web search or somehow concede? It's in second place, right? Yahoo! makes money with that 17% of the market. The problem is that it's not that large an amount when pitted against Google's numbers, which every analyst and tech blogger tends to harp on every time monthly (and yearly) market share numbers are released.

Google's year-over-year increase went from 66% in February 2008 to 72% this past February. Still, the downtrodden economy still has the search behemoth spooked about prospects for advertising this year. Search is still the majority way web users find what they are looking for, with the average search query going from five words to eight in just the last year. Inquiring minds are making more lengthier sentences, apparently. Anyone out there still bullish on Google? It has participated in the rally this week, poking its head above $300 a share after dipping below that level last week amid the teeter-totter of gloom and doom economic news.