Yahoo overtakes Google in US web traffic

Posted by : SIDDHANT Thursday, 22 August 2013

Yahoo websites attracted more US visitors than Google in July, according to the most recent internet traffic numbers. This is happening for the first time in over two years.

According to the latest audience figures compiled by comScore, Yahoo! sites received 196.6 million unique visitors in July - a 21% rise on the same month in 2012. Google, which includes YouTube, attracted 192.3 million visitors to its property - a slight increase.

Microsoft made third place in July, with 179.6 million unique visitors, followed by Facebook with 142.3 million and AOL with 117.4 million.

In an earnings call last month, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer noted that page views were rising after more than a year of declines, citing recently refreshed versions of Yahoo mail, weather, sports, news and Tumblr, both on desktop and mobile.

However, the comScore figures do not include Tumblr, (the social networking website Yahoo purchased last year), which pulled in 38.4 million unique visitors of its own in July. They also do not include mobile traffic, according to comScore, which is significant given that Yahoo is widely considered to be lagging in mobile.

Although the figures have raised a few eyebrows among industry commentators, comScore's Andrew Lipsman told Forbes that Yahoo has never been far behind Google in terms of traffic, so the gain is probably due to seasonal or month-to-month variations.

Yahoo's real challenge is monetising its traffic. Revenues from display advertising, which is still Yahoo's main source of revenue, fell 11 per cent in the second quarter of 2013 to $423 million, and the company has been forced to cut its full-year earnings-and-sales forecast.