It seems that in the UK, search engines have finally surpasses porno sites in terms of internet visits. While search engines visits increased 13.3% this past January, visits to adult websites decreased %14. These results are scarcely surprising. After all, while all adult website visitors probably use search engines at some point, not all search engines visitors visit adult sites. In fact, it seems to me, however, that adult sites are on an uneven playing field vis-a-vis search engines because some users will have to visit a search engine to reach their final adult landing page. Nevertheless, Search Engine Land reports:

Hitwise reports that search engines have overtaken adult sites in share among U.K. internet users. In January, search engines accounted for 13.3% of all UK internet visits, compared with 11.5% for adult websites. The market share of UK internet visits to search engines grew 21% year-on-year in January, while Adult websites declined 14%. Search engines were one of the fastest growing categories in January, with growth outpaced by only the Net Communities and Chat and News and Media categories (up 41% and 28% respectively).

Google and Yahoo! Search led the growth with the share of UK internet searches powered by Google (www.google.co.uk and www.google.com) increasing 6% year-on-year to 78% and Yahoo! Search (uk.search.yahoo.com and search.yahoo.com) increasing 12% to take 8% of search queries in the four weeks to 10th February 2007. MSN Search (search.msn.co.uk, search.msn.com and www.live.com) accounted for 6% of UK internet searches and Ask.com (uk.ask.com and www.ask.com) accounted for 5%.

The original post offers additional info on the press-release which announced this information. However, there does not seem to be any link back to the press-release itself. Just like some adult site visitors, then, you'll have to first visit a search engine to find it for yourself.