In July, 162 million Americans visited Facebook at least once -- up from 160.2 million in June, according to new comScore data. "It's an impressive figure since Facebook is already used by a big percentage of US internet users," Softpedia writes regarding the additional million unique visitors. "That said, it still has some work ahead of it before it can claim the top spot in the US, which now belongs to Google." Indeed, 182 million people in the US visited at least one Google site in the last month, according to comScore. As always, that figure includes YouTube visitors. Most …

Overnight, Twitter just became what The Next Web calls "a truly influential source of traffic." How or why? As of last week, "All links (longer than 20 characters) posted on Twitter.com or any Twitter client have been wrapped with a t.co URL." As a result, all analytics tools will now pick up 't.co' as the referrer as opposed to a particular twitter client, or just twitter.com. "Analytics tools will now categorise [sic] all traffic from both Twitter.com and all Twitter clients as traffic coming from Twitter," The Next Web writes. As such, "Twitter will now be recognized [sic] as a …

Digital archiving startup Evernote just picked up popular Mac desktop app Skitch for an undisclosed sum. Concurrent with the deal, Skitch -- which lets users snap, mark up, and then share screenshots -- announced its compatibility with the iPhone, iPad, and all Android devices. "What does it mean that Skitch is now part of Evernote?" asks ReadWriteWeb. "It means that the international team behind one of the most-loved little pieces of Mac software, which makes it so easy to capture content and throw it up on the web, has now found a home in a well-funded startup with very long-term …

What fortunes doth Twitter feeds keep? Believe it or not, there's a new hedge fund that uses Twitter sentiment to make its investments, and -- so far -- it's apparently beating the street. Derwent Capital "invests based on a randomly selected portion of all tweets on Twitter, analyzing them for sentiment," All Twitter explains. "The basis for Twitter sentiment as a predictor of the stock market is an academic paper published last year which found that certain emotive words in tweets ... signaled a rise or a fall in the stock market." The fund returned 1.85% in its first month …

It looks as if Facebook is adding a live feed ticker to users' homepages. Regarding that change, All Facebook writes: "What's most significant is how this could impact the platform as we're expecting this to become a communication channel for all applications." In other words, "The live ticker is a way of giving users access to real-time information while separating the main feed, the stories of which are now called 'Highlights.'" The Wall Street Journal recently wrote that such a feature would eventually be rolled out to all users, All Facebook points out. "It's an interesting format, however it's slightly …

To broaden its offerings, Chegg just acquired Web tutoring service Student of Fortune for an undisclosed sum. Digits thinks the online textbook rental and education service is trying "to become a one-stop-shop for college students." During its last financing round late last year, Chegg raised $75 million from Ace Limited at a valuation reportedly close to $1 billion. Digits' source also said Chegg racked up about $100 million in revenues last year. "Chegg is beginning to connect people through the student graph," said Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig. "Our bigger vision is to help students to learn and save time and …

The top-10 apps in the Android Market account for a staggering 43% of app usage on Android devices, reports Boy Genius Report, citing new Nielsen data. "Despite the hundreds of thousands of apps available for Android, a very small proportion of apps make up the vast majority of time spent," according to Don Kellogg, Director of Telecom Research & Insights at Nielsen. Meanwhile, the top-50 apps in the Market account for 61% of all usage, which means the vast majority of Android apps account for just 39% of app usage. Also of note, Nielsen found that Android users spent nearly …

A shareholder is suing Motorola Mobility and its CEO, Sanjay Jha, over claims that they could have gotten more than $12.5 billion from Google for the sale of the company. "Investor John W. Keating's complaint, which was filed yesterday at the state courthouse in Chicago, also names Google and nine members of Motorola Mobilty's board as defendants," reports Bloomberg Businessweek. If the deal isn't interrupted by the U.S. Justice Department over antitrust concerns, Google will gain about 17,000 Motorola Mobility patents, which many see as the company's greatest asset. As Bloomberg Businessweek notes, Google has been entangled in patent lawsuits …

Sorry, Verizon. In less than six months, Verizon Wireless' share of Android phones sold stateside has fallen from 51.4% to 41.1%, suggesting that subscribers are defecting in large numbers for Apple's iPhone. A breakdown of U.S. Android providers published by Chitika Insights in March showed Verizon to be the largest Android carrier -- "largely due to that carrier's migration from RIM Blackberry to Droid branded Android smartphones throughout 2010," according to AppleInsider. Now, "A new study by Chitika ... shows a huge decrease in Verizon's slice of the US Android pie after it launched iPhone 4." Chitika estimates that Verizon …

In what many see as yet another patent grab, Apple and Google are reportedly in the running for wireless telecommunications specialist InterDigital. Up against Nokia, Qualcomm, and other bidders, the Web giants are perceived to be primarily interested in InterDigital's patent portfolio. That said, "Key potential bidder Google Inc has not formally withdrawn from the auction but it is unclear whether the Internet leader will bid for the company," Reuters reports, citing a source. Earlier this week, Google already offered the sum of $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility and its cache of patents. Still, "Google's presence in the auction would …