Google overtook Yahoo as the second most popular Internet destination for Web surfers worldwide in November, while Microsoft held on to the top spot, industry tracker ComScore reported.

Slightly more than 736 million people around the world traveled the Internet last month, with 475.5 million of them visiting Google websites and 475.2 million going to Yahoo online properties, according to ComScore.

Websites of Redmond, Washington-based software giant Microsoft were visited by 501.7 million people, the rating tally revealed.

Hot video-sharing website YouTube placed 10th in the ComScore Media Metrix rankings but showed the largest surge in visitors, with the number catapulting by more than 2,000 percent to 107.9 million.

Google's results did not include visits to 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 2005 to 250.8 million. Time Warner Network site visits also notched down one percent, totaling 222.1 million.