It's probably no surprise that Google is the king of Internet search engines, but now it's official. Data published by Hitwise, a company that monitors Web sites and their visitors, shows that in October Google's percentage of search engine visits climbed to 71.86 percent.

1. www.google.com: 71.86%
2. search.yahoo.com: 17.74%
3. search.msn.com: 4.16%
4. www.ask.com: 3.53%

For tips on optimizing sites for Google, see the series at StepForth.