Internet usage trends as revealed by Nielsen Online

The summer months have been good for Google and Yahoo but not so for Microsoft! The latest figures published by research firm Nielsen Online show a rise in Google’s audience base from June to July. The number has touched 129 million. This is considered to be the largest population for a parent company of websites in the US.

Yahoo, among the top three US group of websites, recorded an increase of about four million visitors. In comparison, Microsoft’s audience fell by almost 700,000 visitors to 122 million from June to July, as per Nielsen’s statistics. In July 2007, Microsoft was the top parent company on the web, having roughly 121 million visitors; and Google followed, with 117 million visitors.

This summer, the positions have changed. If we compare the time for which the people stick around, Google still lags behind its rivals. Yahoo leads the race. However, the numbers for Google are getting better and faster owing to its new products like Knol. In July 2007, people spent an average of just one hour and 34 minutes with Google, as compared to almost two hours this year, the new research showed.