Google Vs. Yahoo: Search Engines Challenge Each Other in Market Share War and Yahoo Wins This Time

Yahoo has beaten Google in driving unique visitors to its website for the first time in over two years, signaling the possible resurgence of the web giant headed by CEO Marissa Mayer. It also reminds us that Yahoo and Google have been in close competition for a little while now.

The news comes from the Internet research firm comScore, which tracks where Internet users are going and what they're looking for and ranks websites accordingly. The most recent Media Metrix report from comScore shows that Yahoo and all of its sites, (except for one important one) measured together, actually beat the sum total of Google and its various sites' traffic by a little over 4,000,000 unique visitors in the month of July. The one site not included in the measurement, which would seemingly give Yahoo an even greater lead over Google, is the recently acquired Tumblr.com.

Here are the numbers laid out by comScore on the top five websites:

Yahoo might be finally seeing some tangible proof that the (sometimes) radical changes to the company - made by 30-year old President and CEO of Yahoo (and former early Google employee) Melissa Mayer - are starting to work. Mayer has taken steps to streamline Yahoo's websites, cutting vestigial properties like AltaVista and going on an acquisition spree. Since becoming President of Yahoo last year, Mayer has bought big sites like Tumblr, along with smaller start-ups like Qwiki, Summly, and fantasy sports app maker Bignoggins Productions - all in a bid to strengthen and enhance Yahoo's holdings.

Yahoo shares went up more than 3 percent on Thursday morning, according to the Washington Post, to $27.98 per share. Ed Barton, director of digital media at Strategy Analytics, who spoke to the Daily Beast, said that the comScore results for Yahoo were quite unforeseen: "No online media outlet would have come close to predicting this, and if they had, you would have said they were insane."

Though unexpected, the news is good for Yahoo and Mayer. "This will probably have a positive impact on the share price and if Yahoo keeps this up, it has a chance of becoming relevant again," said Barton.