CHART CLOSE-UP FROM THE STORY:
Google Again Leads List of World's Top Web Properties »
scroll down to read the full story
Google Again Leads List of World's Top Web Properties
Google continues to lead as the most popular web property worldwide, reaching almost 70% of internet users, according to the worldwide rankings of top web properties from comScore’s World Metrix service.
Overall, some 772 million people age 15 or older, or 16% of the worldwide population of that age group, were online worldwide in May (accessing the internet from a home or work location in the previous 30 days) - up from 766 million in April, comScore reported.
According to the comScore study:
- Both Google and the second-leading property, Microsoft, increased their number of unique visitors 2% from April to May.
- The top three properties each boasted more than 20 average visits per visitor in May: Google with 27, Microsoft with 23, and Yahoo with 22.
- The fastest-growing property in the top 10 most-visited sites was Apple Inc.; its total worldwide visitation grew 5%. That increase precedes the recent US release of the Apple iPhone.
- eBay and Amazon - ranked as the sixth and eighth top internet properties. respectively - both experienced gains of 4% from April to May.
- Online retail sites also benefited from an upsurge in online shopping in May, in large part due to Mother’s Day and the onset of the summer holiday season:
- Price-comparison group Ciao Sites was the fastest-growing property, increasing 31%, to 29.6 million visitors.
- Priceline.com Inc. grew 15%, to 23.1 million visitors.
- Online cataloging property Karstadt-Quelle grew its worldwide traffic 15%.
- Social-networking site Facebook.com grew to become the largest of the Top 10 gaining properties in terms of monthly unique visitors: The site was the second fastest-growing site in May, increasing its total worldwide traffic 22%.
Facebook’s growth is especially significant because of its already-large visitor base: It garners at least five times more visits per visitor than any of the other top 10 fastest-growing sites.
