Apple Ranks 10th Among Top Internet Brands in January

Nielsen//NetRatings on Thursday released the results of its look at the top 10 brands on the Internet in January, according to combined home and work visits. Apple ranked tenth, down from ninth the month before. The company defines a brand as "a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content."

The company saw 34,976,000 people visit its domains during January, with each person spending an average of one hour and six minutes there. In December, Apple logged 35,670,000 visitors, with each of them hanging around for an average of one hour and one minute.

Yahoo! was the top brand in January and December, seeing its audience rise from 103,764,000 to 105,093,000 month-to-month. Each visitor spent an average of three hours and 41 minutes at its domains last month, up from three hours and 17 minutes in December.

Among the top ten parent companies, which Nielsen//NetRatings defines as "a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single entity," Microsoft topped the list for the second month in a row. Its audience grew from 111,968,000 unique users to 113,669,000, with average time spent per visitor increasing from two hours and eight minutes to two hours and ten minutes. Apple was not on that list during either month.