Yahoo! Draws Most Visitors; AOL Keeps Them Longest

Yahoo! sites drew more unique visitors than MSN, Google, or America Online-branded sites, but AOL got its visitors to stay for the longest amount of time, according to data released Thursday by Nielsen//NetRatings.

In May, Yahoo! had approximately 97 million unique Web users, who spent an average of three hours and one minute on the site for the month. Among those visitors, Yahoo!'s home page was the most popular application, followed by search and e-mail, said a Nielsen//NetRatings spokeswoman.

AOL-branded sites (excluding properties such as MapQuest) drew just 71.1 million unique visitors, but they spent a monthly average of six hours and 45 minutes on the properties. One major reason that Web users spent so much time at AOL was because of the company's popular instant messenger program, AIM, as well as e-mail and search. When calculating the data for AOL, Nielsen//NetRatings looked at visitors who entered AOL's portal through the Web, as opposed to subscribers who signed on via AOL's own software.

AOL and Yahoo! rival MSN drew around 88.6 million unique users who spent a monthly average of one hour and 43 minutes on the site. As with Yahoo!, the home page was the most popular application, followed by search and Hotmail. Search giant Google lured 76 million visitors, who spent an average of 40 minutes at the site.

Other brands with high traffic last month include Microsoft (91 million visitors, who spent a monthly average of 42 minutes at the site); eBay (51 million visitors; 2 hours and five minutes); AOL's MapQuest (37 million visitors, 12 minutes); Amazon (34 million visitors; 20 minutes); Real (32 million visitors; 41 minutes); and The Weather Channel (29 million visitors; 26 minutes).

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