Media

Google Edges Facebook as America's Most Visited Site

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: June 23, 2016 9:45 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 6:28 am

The Google sites, owned by Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), were the most visited in May, based on desktop and mobile results together. They had 241.6 million unique visitors. Search trumped social media as Facebook Inc.’s (NASDAQ: FB) number was 209.3 million for the same month by the same measure, as reported by research firm comScore.

The three portals and their parents ranked third, fourth and seventh. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) had 204.1 million unique visitors, followed by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) sites, which include MSN, with 199.8 million. AOL posted 153.1 million.

Between the portals, e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) had 181.6 million. The NBCUniversial sites, own by Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) had 158.2 million. It is made up of dozens of sites owned by the parent.

Rounding out the top 10, CBSInteractive from CBS Corp. (NYSE CBS) had unique visitors of 145.1 million, while Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) had 140.5 million, the sign of its power to sell iPhone, iTunes and apps.

The comScore data show one of the reasons LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) was so attractive to Microsoft. It rated 10th on the list with 131.5 million unique visitors in May.

Also notable on the list is how far Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was behind Facebook. Twitter had 141.7 million unique visitors in May. Telling in the e-commerce industry was how far Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was behind Amazon. Wal-Mart had 98.7 million unique visitors in May. Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) was well behind at 57.7 million.

Among major newspaper sites, Gannett Co. Inc.’s (NYSE: GCI) USA Today Network had 104 million unique visitors, and Mail Online/Daily Mail had 74.1 million. New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) had 69.1 million, The Washington Post 63 million, and Tronc Inc.’s (NASDAQ: TRNC) Tribune Publishing 57.8 million.