Report: Google leads in traffic, AOL visitors linger
While the search giant is tops in unique visitors for December, time is on AOL's side as it ranks first in how long visitors stick around, according to Nielsen Online.
Google attracted the greatest number of unique visitors among the top 10 Web brands for the month of December, while AOL was best at keeping its users glued to its site, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Online.
During December, 133.9 million unique visitors went to a Google site, while Microsoft followed with 125.8 million visitors. Yahoo was third with 117.8 million visitors, and AOL was a distant fourth at 86 million.
But while AOL held the No. 4 spot in visitors, it took top billing in getting those folks to linger at its sites, averaging 3.4 hours during the month. Yahoo followed closely with 3.1 hours, while Microsoft and Google trailed with 2.24 hours and 2 hours, respectively, according to the report.
And while Facebook had the lowest ranking among the top 10 for unique visitor traffic, its users lingered on the site at a rate similar to Google.
How long visitors linger on a site may come into play as advertisers look to seed Web sites with 15-second to 30-second advertising video clips.