Nearly 212 million Americans were active online in May 2012, spending 29 hours on average browsing the web. Google remained the top web brand by total audience in the U.S., with 173 million unique visitors, followed by Facebook.com with 152 million visitors in May, the same month as their IPO. Meanwhile, YouTube overtook MSN/WindowsLive/Bing as the 4th ranked brand, and Ask Search Network entered the Top 10 web brands for the first time in 2012.
More than 276 million Americans were estimated to have internet access, and more than half of active web users (125 million) visited Current Events & Global News websites during the month.
Average U.S. Internet Usage for May 2012| Metrics | Total |
|---|
| Sessions/Visits per Person | 64 |
| Domains Visited per Person | 97 |
| Web Page Views per Person | 2716 |
| Duration of a Web Page viewed | 00:01:05 |
| Online Time per Person | 29:07:48 |
| # of People Who Went Online | 211,985,000 |
| # of People who had Internet access | 276,550,209 |
| Read as: Almost 212 million Americans were active online during May 2012. Source: Nielsen |
Top 10 Web Brands for May 2012 (U.S., Total)| Rank | Brand | Unique Audience | Time per Person (hh:mm:ss) |
|---|
| 1 | Google | 173,003,000 | 1:41:31 |
| 2 | Facebook | 152,718,000 | 6:53:34 |
| 3 | Yahoo! | 142,959,000 | 2:31:17 |
| 4 | YouTube | 127,504,000 | 1:50:01 |
| 5 | MSN/WindowsLive/Bing | 126,811,000 | 1:22:04 |
| 6 | Microsoft | 92,725,000 | 0:47:03 |
| 7 | AOL Media Network | 85,071,000 | 2:23:56 |
| 8 | Wikipedia | 76,316,000 | 0:20:57 |
| 9 | Amazon | 76,100,000 | 0:33:59 |
| 10 | Ask Search Network | 74,269,000 | 0:10:40 |
| Read as: During May 2012, 173 million unique U.S. people visited Google websites. Source: Nielsen |
More Americans turn online for news coverage of current events
During May 2012, 57 percent of online Americans visited Current Events & Global News sites. Yahoo!-ABC News Websites was the top web brand in the category, with 62 million unique U.S. visitors to their sites during the month, followed by CNN Digital Network (39.6 million) and HPMG News Websites (formerly AOL News brands).
Among the top 10 sites, visitors to CNN Digital Network spent the most time, averaging 35 minutes per person on their sites, and logged the most pageviews (1.6 billion) for an average of 42 pages each. Overall Americans checked news websites for updates frequently, averaging 18 visits and spending 1 hour 22 minutes using news sites during the month.
Top 10 Global News Brands for May 2012 (U.S., Total)| Rank | Brand | Unique Audience | Time per Person (hh:mm:ss) |
|---|
| 1 | Yahoo!-ABC News Websites | 62,101,000 | 0:17:56 |
| 2 | CNN Digital Network | 39,559,000 | 0:35:27 |
| 3 | HPMG News Websites | 33,534,000 | 0:16:17 |
| 4 | MSNBC Digital Network | 30,175,000 | 0:15:03 |
| 5 | NYTimes.com | 29,248,000 | 0:19:16 |
| 6 | HuffingtonPost | 29,016,000 | 0:20:46 |
| 7 | Tribune Newspapers
| 22,479,000 | 0:07:58 |
| 8 | Fox News Digital Network | 21,555,000 | 0:34:36 |
| 9 | Today | 15,960,000 | 0:08:52 |
| 10 | USAToday.com | 15,104,000 | 0:08:50 |
| Read as: During May 2012, 62 million Americans visited Yahoo!-ABC News Websites. Source: Nielsen |
