HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – A new University of Connecticut poll finds Americans split on whether Internet companies should give the government information about how people use search engines.

But 65 percent of those polled said they object to government monitoring of Internet searches and 60 percent said they don’t want Internet companies permanently storing information about what users are searching for.

The Bush administration wants a federal judge to force Google to turn over a list of search requests by millions of people who visit the search site during any week. The government wants to know how often searches lead users to potentially offensive Web sites.

Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Inc.’s MSN and Time Warner Inc.’s America Online have already provided some of the search engine information and say they did so without giving up users’ private information. But Google is fighting the request.

The poll, conducted by UConn’s Center for Survey Research, found 50 percent of those surveyed do not believe companies should turn over search queries to the government, while 44 percent believe they should.

More than half those surveyed said they are “not too confident” or “not at all confident” that search behaviors collected by Internet companies will remain private.

The poll found 39 percent of Americans use a search engine at least once a day, but only 13 percent acknowledge searching for Web sites they would not want others to know about.

Samuel Best, director of the Center for Survey Research, said some people might not be searching for certain information because they’re afraid someone will find out.

“Skepticism about the privacy of Internet search queries may be influencing how search engines are used,” he said. “Internet users seem to avoid searches that might lead them to Web sites that if exposed, would make them embarrassed or uncomfortable.”

The poll was based on interviews with 800 Americans between Jan. 31 and Feb. 5. The sampling error margin is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.