Everyone Loves Google

That's what the latest comScore numbers tell us, anyway. We already know that Google is easily the country's most popular search engine, commanding some 65 percent of the American search market. But comScore's latest report detailing American online behavior offers Google (GOOG) another feather for its cap: Once again, Google is the most-visited Web site, period.

According to the report, Google attracted a grand total of 156,871,000 unique visitors in June, a number made all the more astonishing when one considers that the total American online audience is just over 193 million. Google was followed by Yahoo (YHOO), which boasts 154 million, and Microsoft (MSFT), which boasts 127 million. The rest of the top 10 is as follows: AOL (106 million), Fox Interactive Media (84 million), Facebook (77 million), Ask Network (73 million), eBay (71 million), Amazon (63 million), and Wikimedia sites (60 million).

A couple of interesting points stood out. Facebook continues its ascent into the ranks of the big boys, climbing two positions since the last report. In what is surely a reflection of economic uncertainty, the site Career Builder jumped six places to land at No. 39, and Twitter, which had barely 1 million visitors last year, cracked the top 50 for the first time with 20 million visitors.

Google may be the king of the mountain, but Yahoo's substantial audience is nothing to sneeze at either. Which may be why Microsoft is rumored to be in the final rounds of negotiating a search deal that along with Bing could be Google's most serious challenge in a while. Information Week points out that shares of Yahoo have jumped 2.5 percent on the strength of these rumors, as well as news that Yahoo and Microsoft could announce a deal as early as today.

As usual, tech reporter Kara Swisher has some interesting things to say about it, noting that the notoriously blunt Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz had nothing but bland praise for Bing at yesterday's quarterly earnings conference call. Earlier, at the D: All Things Digital conference, Bartz left Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer a Post-it note about the company's new search engine: "Steve: Forget it. Won't help. ha, Carol." But now Bartz is all sugar and spice when it comes to Bing. Will Google have a new 800-pound search gorilla to contend with by the time the week is over? Only Steve and Carol know for sure.