Fox Sites Beat Yahoo For Web’s Top Slot

By Geoff Duncan Published December 13, 2006

New Web site rankings from comScore Media Metrix oust Yahoo‘s network of sites from the Web’s top-viewed slot in favor of sites—like MySpace—controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Interactive Unit.

The numbers reported by comScore show Fox’s network of sites garnered a total audience of 39.5 million users in November, up from 38.7 million in October. In contrast, Yahoo’s usership declined, dropping from 41.6 million in October to 38.1 million in November. Fox’s ascent is primarily attributable to MySpace, whcih Fox says has seen 200 percent year-over-year growth.

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Microsoft’s network of sites pulled a distant third, and also saw a decline from 19.3 million users in November to 17.9 million in November.

Quick to defend its online status, Yahoo immediately jumped out with a release countering its overall online audience was still larger than Fox’s, and users spend more time on Yahoo sites than Fox sites—and, therefore, Yahoo is a better deal for marketers. Yahoo also sells far, far more ads than Fox. Yahoo also argued its increased use of “Web 2.0” technology—in which customers tend to stay within one interactive page rather than constantly moving between new pages—makes comScore’s usage measurements artificially low. Yahoo claims to reach almost 130 unique users, as opposed to just over 57 million at MySpace. According to Yahoo, its users spent an average of 5.5 hours on their sites in November, as opposed to 4 hours on MySpace.

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