Google extends online-video lead

Google was the dominant site to watch videos in the United States in March.

(Credit: ComScore)

People in the United States watched about 11.5 billion videos online in March, and Google extended its dominance in the area, according to new figures released Monday.

Google's sites served up 38 percent of the total videos watched, and YouTube accounted for 98 percent of Google's tally, ComScore said. Google gained 2.6 percentage points of market share since February.

Rivals are far, far behind: Fox Interactive Media, with 4.2 percent share; Yahoo with 2.9 percent, Viacom with 2.2 percent; and Microsoft with 2.1 percent.

Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock in 2006. It's working on new YouTube ad technology, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said last week, to try to make more money from the video site.

The total number of videos watched grew 13 percent since February 2008 and 64 percent since March 2007, the Web analysis firm said.