Google has overtaken Microsoft as the world's most-visited web franchise, says internet traffic monitor comScore Network.

If you count all Google's sites, from Google.com to the likes to Google.co.nz to YouTube.com, the search giant clocked 528 million unique visitors in March, a 5% month-on-month increase.
March marks the first time Google has topped comScore's global chart.

Microsoft's network of sites was a smite behind on 527 million visitors, a 3.7% month-on-month increase.

This week's Economist has a lengthy article on Google vs Microsoft vs Yahoo. It covers all the usual bases (will Google Apps undermine Office? etc). But there is one paragraph that pithily puts things into financial perspective:

"For MSN the picture is even bleaker [than Yahoo]. Its parent, Microsoft, is in a different position from Yahoo!, since online advertising is still minuscule next to its revenues from software, expected to be over $45 billion this year. Yet online advertising is crucial to Microsoft's growth, says Sarah Friar, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, since it is perhaps the only new market large enough to be "needle-moving" for such a big firm. But so far Microsoft is failing. By Ms Friar's estimates, Google will make operating profits of over $5 billion this year, growing at a rate of 36% for the next three years; Yahoo! will make $3 billion in operating profit, growing by 20% a year; and Microsoft's online businesses will lose $2 billion this year and even more in the next two years."