Mountain View, California-based Internet giant Google was the top Web destination among United States  visitors during April, surpassing Yahoo for the first time, according to unique monthly visitor data released Thursday from Web traffic analysis company comScore. Google inched closer to holding a 70 percent share of the overall U.S. search engine audience during April, recording a 67.9 percent share according to figures announced Wednesday from another Web traffic measurement firm, Hitwise. The rankings from both firms were seen as helping Google to bolster its position as the top Internet firm. Google Top U.S. Web Destination, Surpassing Yahoo For First Time While Google has held the top spot in Internet search share for years, Yahoo had maintained its position as the most visited Web destination, a category that includes visits not only to search engines but to a company's other Web properties such as Web-based e-mail and photo and video sharing sites, until last month, according to the newly released rankings from Reston, Virginia-based comScore. The comScore figures show that sites owned by Google received 467,000 more U.S. visitors during April than those owned by Yahoo, with both firms' sites attracting over 140 million unique visitors, a slim margin recorded by a research firm that has faced concerns from some analysts who see such figures as relatively small and potentially flawed samplings of the actual online activity of hundreds of millions of Web users. Google's move surpassing Yahoo as the top U.S. Web destination has been seen as inevitable by some industry analysts, and April visitor figures released earlier this month from Nielsen Online already showed Google occupying the top position, with 120.8 million unique U.S. visitors compared to Yahoo's 115.8 million. Google Share Of Search Engine Market Nears 70 Percent Data from Hitwise showed Google's share of U.S. online searches rose to 67.9 percent during April, up 0.65 percent from March's 67.25 percent, while rising 2.64 percent over the 65.26 percent share the search leader held during the same month one year earlier. While April saw Google making gains, both rivals Yahoo and Microsoft experienced declines, Hitwise said. The second most popular search engine company Yahoo saw its portion of the search market drop slightly from 20.29 percent in March to 20.28 percent, and 0.45 percent since April 2007, according to the newly released Hitwise figures. The third most-used search engine firm Microsoft, with its Live Search service, saw its share of the search market fall from 6.65 percent in March to 6.26 percent in April, a drop of 0.39 percent, while falling 1.51 percent over its April 2007 figure of 7.77 percent, Hitwise said. Ask.com, whose parent company IAC/InterActiveCorp announced Thursday that is had purchased Lexico - home to popular reference Web sites such as Dictionary.com, remained in the fourth search market position with a 4.17 percent share, up slightly from March's 4.09 figure. Between April 2007 and April 2008 Ask.com saw its search share expand 0.48 percent, from 3.69 percent to 4.17 percent, according to the Hitwise data. Google Poised To Boost Other Services Hitwise tracks usage statistics for 45 other search engine sites, which together held a 1.4 percent share of U.S. searches in April according to the firm. Strong April figures from comScore hint that Google may be poised to gain a boost in its other services, with an 18 percent increase in its U.S.  audience over the same month one year earlier. While Yahoo also recorded 7 percent growth over the past year, the rate was less than half that of rival Google. ComScore figures showed Google garnering 141.1 million unique U.S. visitors in April, followed by Yahoo with 140.6 million, and Microsoft which recorded some 121 million. Time Warner's AOL saw its properties receive 111 million unique visitors during April. While comScore's April figures, which come from its Media Metrix panel, show that Google Web properties have taken the top spot among U.S. unique visitors, Yahoo retained its lead in the total number of page views, recording 33.6 billion during the month compared with 28.7 billion for Google. The Web site page views figures indicate that visitors to Yahoo's collection of Web properties spend more time there, while those that use Google are more apt to be making search engine requests and quickly leaving Google destinations by following links. Related Links:
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