WebProNews

Microsoft, Yahoo, and Time Warner were the top three companies receiving website visitors in January 2006, as each handled more than 100 million unique visitors for the month.

Sites owned by the trio drew a huge volume of US Internet traffic, Nielsen//NetRatings reported in its research for the month of January.

Microsoft garnered 113 million unique visitors, trailed by Yahoo (105 million) and Time Warner (102 million), which is the parent company of AOL.

Google took fourth with 93 million unique visitors in the period. After that, the numbers drop precipitously; fifth-place eBay brought in 61 million visitors, and no other company topped the 60 million visitor mark.

IAC/InterActive Corp and News Corp battled to sixth and seventh place (56 million and 52 million) with their networks of sites. Online retailer Amazon saw 49 million visitors, while the various Walt Disney Group properties welcomed 40 million visitors to its Magic Kingdom of sites.

The New York Times Company, which includes the About.com site network, brought in 39 million visitors. The Times has enjoyed success with its Times Select subscription program, providing subscribers with access to pieces written by its noteworthy columnists as well as access to the Times news archives.

Nielsen//NetRatings also reported on popularity among online brands. AOL and Yahoo have been very consistent in terms of keeping visitors within their site networks. In January, AOL kept users in its network for 6 hours, 18 minutes per person; Yahoo held onto individuals for 3 hours, 41 minutes on average.

---
document.write("Email WebProNews here.")

Drag this to your Bookmarks.

Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") | DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.