Google overtakes Yahoo to become No 2 in most visited site...

2006 has been a big year for Google, according to comScore. This year’s round of acquisitions and service offerings have made Google the number two most-visited site on the Internet, knocking Yahoo down to number three, while closing in on Microsoft.

Google bought the popular video sharing site YouTube earlier this year, driving stock prices over $500, according to the BBC. The comScore report, released late last week, says that Google saw 475.7 million visitors in the month of November, pulling barely ahead of Yahoo, which garnered 475.3 million visitors. Both sites lag behind Microsoft, which commanded an audience of 501.7 million. This is the first time Google has overtaken Yahoo, according to Bloomberg.

Since Google bought YouTube, the number of visitors to that site has increased nearly 24 times to 107.9 million. YouTube ranks 10th on the comScore charts, and its visits were not included in Google’s tally.

Google’s audience grew by 9.1% while Yahoo’s only grew by 5.2%, and Microsoft’s by 3.3%. Meanwhile online auction site eBay brought up the rear in fourth place