Microsoft has finally managed to leave behind Google and Yahoo in the quest for capturing the maximum number of users in a month. According to the numbers released by the leading digital marketing analysis firm, comScore, Microsoft grabbed the biggest piece of the user usage pie for the month of September. The credit for this well deserved win goes to its Windows Live services.

The Windows Live services accounted for about 70% of the 3.9 billion hours of online time recorded by comScore on Microsoft websites. On the whole, Microsoft bagged 15% of the total time spent by users on the internet. Microsoft was followed by Google with 2.5 billion hours of user time on Google sites. Yahoo was close on the heels of Google with a recorded usage time of 1.7 billion hours on various Yahoo sites. The Google figure is comprised of 1.5 billion hours that were spent on its widely acclaimed video acquisition, YouTube.

Microsoft also raced ahead of Google and Yahoo when the scores are compared outside the United States. In Europe, Microsoft counted for 16.8 percent of usage time and in Latin America as well as in Middle East it scored 35.9 percent of usage time. According to Jack Flanagan (Executive Vice President, comScore Media Metrix),

“The Internet continues to be a dynamic and growing environment around the world with the global online population climbing more than 20 percent in the last year. With the U.S. economy only now emerging from a recession, many multinational corporations have shifted the focus of their growth strategies towards developing markets and the Internet represents an important aspect of those strategies. Understanding the global Internet landscape is the first step towards executing effective marketing strategies in these growing markets.”

Via Seattle PI Blogs & comScore.