Google overtook Yahoo as the second most popular Internet destination for Web surfers worldwide in November while Microsoft held on to the top spot, ComScore Media Metrix reported. Slightly more than 736 million people around the world traveled the Internet last month, with 475,713 of them visiting Google websites and 475,262 going to Yahoo online properties, according to industry tracker ComScore.

Websites of software giant Microsoft were visited by 501,720 people, the rating tally revealed.

Hot video-sharing website YouTube placed tenth in the ComScore Media Metrix rankings but showed the largest surge in visitors, with the number catapulting by more than 2,000 percent to 107,944.

Google's results did not include visits YouTube, which it bought in October.

The popularity of Google websites was up nine percent from the same month a year earlier, while visits to Silicon Valley rival Yahoo grew by five percent and to Microsoft by three percent in the same comparison.

Online auction pioneer eBay was ranked in fourth place, with the number of visitors slipping by one percent from November of 2005 to 250,848. Time Warner Network site visits also notched down one percent, tallying 222,107.

The number of people going to the communally-edited Internet encyclopedia site Wikipedia more than doubled to 171,945 in November as compared to that month last year.

Online retailer Amazon attracted 143,957 visitors, registering a seven percent increase.

Fox Interactive Media, owner of teen-oriented social site MySpace, saw the number of visitors to its properties nearly quadruple to 130,401 and ranked eighth in the November standings.

Visits to the Ask Network slipped two percent to 110,924 and ranked ninth in online visitors.