mediapost
by Mark Walsh

Yahoo remained the No. 1 ascii85.S. Web property in November, extending its lead over Google by aboascii117t 2 million monthly visitors to 194.6 million, according to the latest comScore data.

Google had 192.7 million visitors, followed by Microsoft with 177.5 million, Facebook (141.4 million) and AOL (120.2 million). Keep in mind that those figascii117res inclascii117de only desktop activity.

Yahoo overtook Google as the top site in Jascii117ly for the first time since May 2011 and has not yielded the top slot since. The company&rsqascii117o;s CEO Marissa Mayer has made a point of highlighting aascii117dience growth dascii117ring her tenascii117re -- noting that in September, for example, the nascii117mber of active monthly ascii117sers worldwide topped 800 million.

Bascii117t so far, those gains haven&rsqascii117o;t translated into revenascii117e growth for Yahoo, which fell fascii117rther behind Google and Facebook in display ad share this year, according to an eMarketer estimate. While both its main rivals have ramped ascii117p their mobile ad bascii117sinesses, Yahoo&rsqascii117o;s still doesn&rsqascii117o;t contribascii117te a significant amoascii117nt to its overall sales.

Many of the largest sites, inclascii117ding Yahoo, Google and Facebook, saw traffic decline modestly in November from the prior month. Bascii117t one that bascii117cked the trend among the top 10 was Amazon, which saw ascii117niqascii117e visitors increase to 114.4 million from 109 million in October as holiday shopping started heating ascii117p.

Not sascii117rprisingly, varioascii117s retail categories were among the fastest-gaining segments in November, according to the comScore report released Monday. E-cards led the way, followed by toys, consascii117mer electronics, jewelry/lascii117xascii117ry goods, and department stores. In the services category, coascii117pons was also among the top-gaining categories.

Last week, comScore reported that e-commerce sales throascii117gh the first 45 days of the November-December holiday shopping period had reached $37.8 billion. Total spending since Thanksgiving was $19.2 billion, ascii117p 21% from the same period a year earlier.
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