The annual study, which was conducted by ForeSee Results, shows that for the second year in a row, Google scored a strong 86 out of 100 on a scale of customer satisfaction. That's nine points higher than the second-place finisher, Yahoo.

The study was conducted before was released earlier this summer. Nevertheless, Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, said that it will be a long uphill climb for Bing to hurt Google's place among satisfied search users.

"Google is unquestionably king of search, so the only competition is for second place," said Freed, in a statement. "The research was done before Bing entered the market, so we don't know what effect its entry will have. But Google's customers are pretty happy and have little reason to try something new, so Bing has a real uphill battle ahead."

The university noted that Google, Yahoo, Microsoft (75 for its older search technology) and Ask.com (74) each maintained their ratings from last year year. AOL, with a 1% rise to a 70, was the only portal or search engine to show an increase.

The study is based on responses from 11,000 U.S. computer users surveyed during the second quarter of this year.