Google sites pick up popularity points

For the internet, the summer months seem to be a boon for Google and Yahoo! but not Microsoft.

The latest figures from research firm Nielsen Online show a slight lift to Google's audience from June to July, up by about one million visitors to an estimated 129 million, the largest population for a parent company of websites in the United States.

Yahoo!, the third most popular US group of sites, enjoyed a boost of about four million visitors over that time to almost 118 million visitors. In contrast, Microsoft's audience fell by roughly 700,000 visitors to 122 million from June to July, according to Nielsen's statistics, which were released Tuesday.

Microsoft also lost out to Google over the year. In July 2007, Microsoft was the top parent company on the web, with about 121 million visitors; and Google followed, with an estimated 117 million visitors. This summer, the roles are reversed.

With respect to the coveted time people spend with a website Google still trails behind rivals, Yahoo! comes in first there. In July, people spent an average of three hours and 31 minutes on Yahoo!. That compares to almost two hours with Google; two hours and 16 minutes on Microsoft's network; and three hours and 28 minutes on Time Warner's sites, including AOL.

Google's time numbers are climbing, no doubt because of new products such as wiki-like Knol. In July 2007, people spent an average of one hour and 34 minutes with Google, compared with almost two hours this summer.

Also of note, Apple made the list of the top 10 most popular companies online in July at the expense of The New York Times, which appeared on the list in the same period a year ago. Thanks to the popularity of the iPhone and other products, an estimated 51 million people spent an average of one hour and 12 minutes on Apple's sites in July.

Original article: Summer traffic up for Google, down for Microsoft from CNET News.com