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Google, Facebook top U.S. Web destinations in July

More than 172.5 million unique visitors in the U.S. hit Google's pages that month, according to Nielsen. Facebook wasn't far behind.

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The top Web brands in July.
The top Web brands in July. Nielsen

Google was by far the most popular online destination in July among Americans, according to data released yesterday by Nielsen.

According to the research firm, 172.5 million unique visitors in the U.S. went to Google in July, spending an average of nearly 1.5 hours on the site. The world's top social network, Facebook, had nearly 159 million unique visitors. However, the social network was far and away their favorite place to be, with folks spending an average of over 5 hours on the site during the month.

Yahoo came in third place in Nielsen's study with 148.6 million unique visitors and an average of more than 2 hours of visitation on the month. MSN, Windows Live, and Bing combined attracted 131 million people and over 1.5 hours of visitation. YouTube rounded out the top five with 126 million unique visitors and over 1.5 hours of average use.

Those sites' ability to attract so many people becomes all the more impressive when one considers that 213 million Americans used the Internet in July, according to Nielsen's findings. Moreover, Nielsen said that 275 million people had Internet access during the month.

Not much has changed on the Web over the last few months. In May, according to Nielsen, all five of the top companies were in the same rank order. However, Google attracted only 155 million unique visitors that month, while Facebook trailed with 140 million. Yahoo had 134 million unique visitors in May.

Aside from Web sites, Nielsen also dug into data on the folks surfing the Web in July. The research firm found that the average American visited 95 sites during the month and accounted for nearly 2,600 page views. The average time viewing a Web page was just over 1 minute, while the average American's total Web usage was over 27 hours.