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.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
