Americans watched 41 billion online videos in May

At a time when television viewing continues to rise in the U.S., people somehow are finding time to watch more Internet videos as well, most likely at the same time.

Some 182 million Americans watched nearly 41 billion online videos in May, up 5% from the previous month, according to newly released data from ComScore Video Metrix.

Google’s sites -- primarily YouTube -- ranked as the top online video property in the U.S., with nearly 155 million viewers clicking in. That’s more than twice the number of people who watched videos on Facebook (60 million) and nearly triple AOL’s video viewers (54 million), according to ComScore.

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When it comes sheer numbers of video views, Google dominated there as well. Google and YouTube generated almost 14 billion videos viewed in May, ComScore reported. AOL ranked a distant second with 839 million views followed by Facebook with 727 million.

Among YouTube channels, Vevo continues to cement its reputation as the MTV for the new generation -- with some 50 million viewers watching 561 million music videos in May.

Online networks created by two Los Angeles-based digital media companies, Fullscreen and Maker Studios, brought in 36.5 million views and 32.4 million views, respectively.

Internet videos provide fleeting moments of diversion for a broad swath of the connected population. Almost 85% of the U.S. Internet audience watched online videos in May. The average length of an online video, about 5.6 minutes, may reveal something about the nature of our attention spans.

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