Google Beats Yahoo for Most Web Traffic

According to comScore, the total number of visitors to Google Web sites just barely edged out total visitors to Yahoo sites during April.

According to media metrics firm comScore, the number of visitors to Google Web site edged out the number of visitors to Yahoo sites during April 2008, with Google drawing 141.1 million visitors compared to 140.6 million visitors for Yahoo. Although Google is by far the leader in Internet search, it marks the first time Google sites have drawn more total Web traffic than Yahoo’s extensive online offerings.

Yahoo sites had taken the top spot in comScore’s monthly listings every month since November of 2003. And the key to Google’s victory? YouTube.

“April was a very active month. Google took the top property position, thanks to continued search growth and rapid growth at YouTube,” commented comScore executive VP Jack Flanagan, in a statement. comScore also noted that the U.S. tax season drove filers to the IRS and other tax-related sites—the IRS saw a 35 percent jump in traffic between March and April, making it one of the Web’s fastest growing “properties” for the month—and that the end of the Hollywood writers’ strike drove TV viewers to catch up on their favorite shows as well as stream new video content. YouTube saw a 2 percent jump in traffic between March and April 2008, with 66.2 million unique visitors for the month. Compared to a year ago, YouTube’s traffic is up 77 percent.

Rounding out the top ten Web properties for the month were Microsoft, AOL, Fox Interactive Media (which includes MySpace), ebay, Wikipedia, Amazon.com, Ask.com., and Time-Warner sites separate from AOL.