141.1 million prefer Google

2008-05-15 13:38

San Francisco - Google Inc, long dominant in the internet search market, has overtaken rival Yahoo Inc as the most popular web destination in the US, according to forthcoming data from research firm comScore Inc.

Google saw its US audience grow 18% in April compared with the period a year earlier, to 141.1 million. Yahoo's audience, meanwhile, grew only seven percent to 140.6 million, according to comScore's data, which will be released to the public on Thursday.

Microsoft Corp came in third at roughly 121 million.

While Yahoo has watched its share of the search market fall further behind that of Google in recent years, it had been able to hold an edge over its younger rival in total audience thanks to a broad array of services such as financial news and photo sharing.

But Google has also expanded its breadth of such internet services recently, as it further evolves from its origins as a search provider.

The comScore data was first reported by the Associated Press and confirmed by the research firm.

Yahoo has faced enormous challenges in trying to keep pace with Google.

The company was confronted by an unsolicited, $31 a share acquisition offer from Microsoft in February, which it later spurned as too low.

Microsoft saw its bid for Yahoo as a means to effectively team up against Google, by combining the two companies' large bases of online advertisers and users.

- Dow Jones