Report: Google leads in traffic, AOL visitors linger

Google attracted the greatest number of unique visitors among the top 10 Web brands for the month of December, while AOL was best at keeping its users glued to its site, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Online.

During December, 133.9 million unique visitors went to a Google site, while Microsoft followed with 125.8 million visitors. Yahoo was third with 117.8 million visitors, and AOL was a distant fourth at 86 million.

But while AOL held the No. 4 spot in visitors, it took top billing in getting those folks to linger at its sites, averaging 3.4 hours during the month. Yahoo followed closely with 3.1 hours, while Microsoft and Google trailed with 2.24 hours and 2 hours, respectively, according to the report.

And while Facebook had the lowest ranking among the top 10 for unique visitor traffic, its users lingered on the site at a rate similar to Google.

How long visitors linger on a site may come into play as advertisers look to seed Web sites with 15-second to 30-second advertising video clips.

[vertig0730]

Memo to all AOL employees,

Please go to www.aol.com and leave your browser there every day while you are working. We are losing money and need a way to fake our value to perspective customers. We thank you in this matter.


Signed,
CEO

[RainCaster]

The AOL users are staying on pages longer because their lips can't read any faster. Nobody else would waste their time on AOL sites but paid AOL users. The poor fools can't figure out who to get out to the real internet.

[viper2se]

<i>"Google attracted the greatest number of unique visitors among the top 10 Web brands for the month of December, while AOL was best at keeping its users glued to its site..."</i>

This is an unfair comparison. Google's mission is to connect its users with information, to be successful as this median, they must present relevant information quickly and accurately. AOL, however, is establishing itself as an entertainment portal, gaining revenue from lingering eyeballs.

A more appropriate comparison would be AOL and YouTube.

<a href="http://www.jacobmadison.com">Jacob madison</a>

[UITD]

AOL is still around? I remember testing that piece of crap system in 1990 and vowed to never use it. Thankfully, its a free country.

[TV James]

Agree with @viper2se and @RainCaster.

AOL users are all senior citizens on dial-up. They move slower, their computers are slower, their connections are slower and AOL's servers are slower.

(Actually, the AOLs servers are so underused that Warner Bros. is using them to digitally remaster films, but that's another story for another day.)