2012\’s Top 17 Websites of the World

#17 MSN

Website: www.msn.com

Global rank: 17
Last year\’s rank: 9
Global reach: 5.882%
Global page views: 0.1278%
Sites linking in to MSN: 418,039

MSN.com, once a simple online service for Windows 95 has now become the 17th most visited website in the world. The portal is mainly visited for shopping, news, money, e-mail, search, chat and more. The site has been online for more than 17 years. According to Alexa, about 28% of visitors to it come from the US.

#16 Yahoo! Japan

Website: yahoo.co.jp

Global rank: 16
Last year\’s rank: 12
Global reach: 3.705%
Global page views: 0.6453%
Sites linking in to Yahoo Japan: 144,604

Yahoo, the fading tech portal is still a hot destination for millions. Its Japanese version is the sixteenth most popular website in the world. Almost all visitors to this come from Japan, where it has attained a traffic rank of 1.

According to Alexa, the visitors spend roughly 30 seconds on each page and a total of fifteen minutes on the site during each visit.

#15 Sina

Website: sina.com.cn

Global rank: 15
Last year\’s rank: 16
Global reach: 4.931%
Global page views: 0.28853%
Sites linking in to Sina: 204,498

Sina is a Chinese online media company for Chinese communities around the world. The website, which has been online for more than thirteen years, is now the largest Chinese language infotainment portal. It is the fourth most visited website in China.

#14 Taobao

Website: www.taobao.com

Global rank: 14
Last year\’s rank: 17
Global reach: 4.177%
Global page views: 0.7545%
Sites linking in to Taobao: 191,151

Launched in 2003, Taobao Marketplace (www.taobao.com) is the leading consumer-to-consumer online marketplace in China. With more than 800 million product listings and more than 370 million registered users, Taobao Marketplace is the primary online shopping destination for the largest online population in the world and is the 14th most visited website in the world.

#13 Google India

Website: google.co.in

Global rank: 13
Last year\’s rank: 14
Global reach: 4.768%
Global page views: 0.59051%
Sites linking in to Google India: 45,053

Indian version of the popular search engine stands at the thirteenth position globally. The website, which offers interfaces in many local languages, is the most visited site in India. According to Alexa, the site appeals more to Asians; its audience also tends to consist of less affluent, childless men under the age of 35 who have postgraduate educations. Almost all visitors to it come from India, where it has attained a traffic rank of 1. Visitors to Google.co.in view an average of 12.7 unique pages per day, and the time spent in a typical visit to it is roughly eleven minutes, with 27 seconds spent on each page.

#12 LinkedIn

Website: www.linkedin.com

Global rank: 12
Last year\’s rank: 13
Global reach: 5.253%
Global page views: 0.45885%
Sites linking in to LinkedIn: 1,247,810

LinkedIn, a networking tool used by millions is the 12th most popular website in the world. The website allows registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people including job candidates, industry experts and business partners. According to Alexa, the time spent in a typical visit to the site is approximately eight minutes, with 39 seconds spent on each page view.

#11 Blogger

Website: www.blogspot.com

Global rank: 11
Last year\’s rank: 5
Global reach: 7.042%
Global page views: 0.24974%
Sites linking in to Blogspot: 27,721

According to Alexa, this Google owned service when compared with internet averages, appeals more to users who browse from home and school. 28 percent of its visitors are from U.S.

The visitors to site spend about five minutes per visit and 47 seconds per page view.

#10 Amazon

Website: www.amazon.com

Global rank: 10
Last year\’s rank: 15
Global reach: 5.778%
Global page views: 0.59674%
Sites linking in to Amazon: 1,073,767

Amazon.com, the American multinational company is a place where customers from all around the world can find and discover almost everything they want to buy online. The site has numerous features and services including one-click buying, extensive customer and editorial product reviews, gift registries, gift certificates, wish lists, restaurant and movie listings, travel, and photo processing.

According to Alexa, relative to the overall population of internet users, the site\’s users are disproportionately Caucasian, and they are disproportionately moderately educated. Visitors to this site spend approximately 37 seconds on each page and a total of nine minutes on the site during each visit.

#9 QQ

Website: www.qq.com

Global rank: 9
Last year\’s rank: 10
Global reach: 7.506%
Global page views: 0.6388%
Sites linking in to qq: 429,006

qq.com is one of largest and most used internet service portal in china. The website which was founded in 1998 is owned by Tencent Holdings. Tencent\’s communications and information-sharing services include QQ.com, QQ Instant Messenger, QQ Mail, and search engine SOSO. All are linked up with heavily used features such as forums, chat rooms, and QQ Groups and so on.

According to Alexa, the site has attained a traffic rank of 2 among users in China, where its estimated 91% audience is located.

#8 Twitter

Website: www.twitter.com

Global rank: 8
Last year\’s rank: 9
Global reach: 8.983%
Global page views: 0.4971%
Sites linking in to Twitter: 5,746,990

Twitter, the social networking and micro blogging site is the eighth most popular website in the world. Its users spread all over the world. The site has been online for more than twelve years. Twitter\’s visitors spend roughly eight minutes per visit and 46 seconds per page view.

#7 Windows Live

Website: www.live.com

Global rank: 7
Last year\’s rank: 8
Global reach: 10.191%
Global page views: 0.6783%
Sites linking in to Live: 151,134

The Microsoft owned Windows Live, a collective set of services, most of them based on web is the seventh most popular website in the world.

According to Alexa, about 4% of visits to this site are referred by search engines. Approximately 17% of visitors to the site come from the US, where it is located. It is launched in 2005.

#6 Wikipedia

Website: www.wikipedia.org

Global rank: 6
Last year\’s rank: 7
Global reach: 13.644%
Global page views: 0.5224%
Sites linking in to Wikipedia: 1,934,190

Wikipedia, the collaboratively edited, multilingual, free encyclopedia is the sixth most popular website in the world. It is built using the wiki software which allows users to create and edit websites through a browser.

According to Alexa, the fraction of visits to the site referred by search engines is about 38%. Compared with internet averages, Wikipedia\’s audience tends to be users who browse from school and work. The site has been online for at least eleven years.

#5 Baidu

Website: www.baidu.com

Global rank: 5
Last year\’s rank: 6
Global reach: 11.461%
Global page views: 1.8525%
Sites linking in to Baidu: 310,140

Baidu is China’s favorite search engine. It offers many services including its Chinese language search engine for websites, audio files, and images. It is the first one to offer WAP and PDA based mobile search in China. It has been online for more than 12 years.

According to Alexa, the time spent in a typical visit to the site is approximately thirteen minutes, with 34 seconds spent on each page. Compared with the internet averages, the site appeals more to Asians.

#4 Yahoo!

Website: www.yahoo.com

Global rank: 4
Last year\’s rank: 4
Global reach: 21.533%
Global page views: 1.3239%
Sites linking in to Yahoo: 1,787,700

The major internet portal and service provider, which is travelling through lot of catastrophes recently, is still the fourth most popular website of the world. It offers many things ranging from search results to customizable contents to chat rooms. The website has visitors from all over the world.

According to Alexa, 33% of visitors to the site come from the US, where it is ranked 4. The website is the number 1 in Taiwan. Compared with internet averages, the site\’s audience tends to be users who browse from school and home.

#3 YouTube

Website: www.youtube.com

Global rank: 3
Last year\’s rank: 3
Global reach: 32.698%
Global page views: 4.0823%
Sites linking in to YouTube: 3,198,073

YouTube, the world’s favorite video viewing destination is the third most popular website. No matter in which corner of the world they are, people shoot and upload videos to this Google owned service. The website has been online for more than seven years.

According to Alexa, roughly 21% of visitors to the site come from the US.

#2 Facebook

Website: www.facebook.com

Global rank: 2
Last year\’s rank: 2
Global reach: 45.094%
Global page views: 5.7886%
Sites linking in to Facebook: 7,047,911

World’s largest social network is the second most popular website. It has users from from each and every corner of the world. The site has been online since 2004.

According to Alexa, search engines refer approximately 4% of visits to it. Time spent in a typical visit to Facebook is roughly 24 minutes, with 56 seconds spent on each page. Relative to the overall population of internet users, this site\’s audience tends to be users who browse from school and home and work.

#1 Google

Website: www.google.com

Global rank: 1
Last year\’s rank: 1
Global reach: 48.318%
Global page views: 5.3069%
Sites linking in to Google: 4,481,542

Google is the world’s largest and most popular search engine. The service which offers unique features of its own, including image and voice search is visited by people looking for information about each and everything in the world. The site has been online for at least 14 years.

According to Alexa, about 30% of visitors to this site come from the U.S. The time spent in a typical visit to the site is about twelve minutes, with 31 seconds spent on each page view.

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