Yahoo tops in the U.S. in January, ComScore finds
Yahoo sites were the most popular destination for U.S. Web users in January, ComScore says. Yahoo was followed by Google sites, Microsoft sites, and Facebook.
Yahoo reigns supreme in the U.S.
The company attracted 178.9 million unique U.S. Web visitors last month, according to research firm ComScore, barely besting Google's 178.5 million unique users. Microsoft's sites came in third place, attracting 176.8 million unique users. Facebook and AOL rounded out the top five with 153 million and 111 million unique visitors in January, respectively. All told, nearly 212 million people in the U.S. were online last month, according to ComScore.
Although Yahoo led the way in overall traffic, the company couldn't best Google in ads. According to ComScore, Google's advertising reached 93.1 percent of the entire U.S. audience. Yahoo's ad network was able to reach 85.5 percent of all U.S. Web users, while AOL's ads were seen by 85 percent of the U.S. Web audience. Facebook found its way into the top 10 in advertising reach, with its ads targeting 72.3 percent of the entire U.S. Web audience.
Seasonality plays a crucial role in how traffic is dispersed around the Web. January was a busy month for taxpayers and travel-seekers.
ComScore reported that tax-preparation sites, such as TurboTax and H&R Block, saw 345 percent growth over December, attracting 26.8 million unique visitors in January. Online travel sites were up as well with 54 percent of all U.S. Web users--114.6 million people--accessing such pages during the month.
New jobs were also on the mind of Americans, ComScore found. The company said that 80.2 million people explored "career services and development resources" in January, growing 24 percent over December.
Indeed.com was the most-popular destination for job seekers.
