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Anybody in the online business game knows that Google is by far the most-used search engine out there. But by just how much? Well, to cite one recent report (by the online information company known as Hitwise), Google accounts for a whopping 63.55 percent of all U.S. searches as of September 2007.

Hitwise, an Experian subsidiary and self-described “online competitive intelligence service” based out of New York, also reported that Yahoo is running a strong second place with 22.55 percent. MSN Search is in third place with 7.83 percent, right ahead of Ask.com’s 4.32 percent. “The remaining 49 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.75 percent of U.S. searches,” according to the report.

No surprises there. However, a less well-known result of the Hitwise report is just what people are searching for when they use these search engines. According to BNET’s analysis of the report, “nearly half (44%) of the visitors to Health and Medical sites come from a search engine query.”

Following closely behind is Travel (32.5%), Shopping and Classifieds (25.5%), News and Media (20.9%), Entertainment (20.8%), and Business & Finance (17%). Despite the fact that Business & Finance is the runt of the pack, it nevertheless represents the fastest growing category in search engine traffic; year over year traffic in this category grew a whopping 30.6%, while Health & Medical (the top-searched category) grew a paltry 5.8%.

Read the original Hitwise report here.

Thanks to BNET’s Jonathan Haeber for breaking the news.