Skip to main content

Yahoo takes #1 spot, knocks Google down to #2 in US Internet traffic

yahoo beats google facebook twitter unique desktop visitors december marissamayer
Image used with permission by copyright holder

You read that right – Yahoo received more U.S. Internet traffic than Google in July, according to the latest monthly report of the top 50 U.S. Web properties from comScore. Google has held the number one traffic spot for the past two years. The last time Yahoo found itself in the top position was May 2011.

By comScore’s count, Yahoo received 196,564,000 visitors during the month of July. Google came in a close second, with 192,251,000 visitors. Microsoft Web properties, Facebook, and AOL sites all rounded out the top five.

Yahoo comScore traffic report July 2013
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Yahoo’s boost in traffic numbers follows the company’s $1.1 billion purchase of Tumblr in May. ComScore lists Tumblr.com sites, which reportedly have a combined total of 300 million users and 120,000 new sign-ups each day, as its own entry, coming in at number 28 on the list with 38,367,000 U.S. visitors in July. According to a footnote on the comScore report, “some portion” of Tumblr’s traffic was assigned to “other syndicated entities” – presumably Yahoo. It is not entirely clear, however, what “some portion” means. But considering Tumblr is now part of the Yahoo network, we would guess that portion is around 100 percent.

The Tumblr acquisition is part of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s efforts to revive Yahoo’s brand, and return the company to its place as a top player in the Internet ecosystem. In a statement released in May, Mayer predicted that “Tumblr+Yahoo could grow Yahoo’s audience by 50 percent to more than a billion monthly visitors, and could grow traffic by approximately 20 percent.” In fact, Yahoo’s traffic for July 2013 is exactly 20 percent higher than its July 2012 traffic. 

Needless to say, Marissa Mayer and the Yahoo team are probably having a very good day.

Andrew Couts
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…
X CEO reveals video calls are coming to the app formerly known as Twitter
The new X sign replacing the Twitter logo on the company's headquarters in San Francisco.

X, formerly Twitter, is to get video calling as part of ongoing efforts to turn the platform into a so-called “everything app” offering a broad range of services.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced the news during an interview with CNBC on Thursday.

Read more
How to download Instagram photos (5 easy ways)
Instagram app running on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Instagram is amazing, and many of us use it as a record of our lives — uploading the best bits of our trips, adventures, and notable moments. But sometimes you can lose the original files of those moments, leaving the Instagram copy as the only available one . While you may be happy to leave it up there, it's a lot more convenient to have another version of it downloaded onto your phone or computer. While downloading directly from Instagram can be tricky, there are ways around it. Here are a few easy ways to download Instagram photos.

Read more
X seems to have deleted years of old Twitter images
The new X sign replacing the Twitter logo on the company's headquarters in San Francisco.

The social media platform formerly known as Twitter and recently rebranded as X appears to be having trouble showing images posted on the site between 2011 and 2014.

The issue came to widespread attention on Saturday when X user Tom Coates noted how the famous selfie posted by Ellen DeGeneres at the Oscars in 2014, which quickly broke the “most retweets” record, was no longer displaying. Later reports suggested the image had been restored, though, at the time of writing, we’re not seeing it.

Read more