Google's net went from $733 million in Q3 to $1.03 billion in the fourth quarter, joining Apple in the billion dollar club.

Sales were $3.21 billion, up 67 percent from a year ago and 19 percent sequentially.

It kind of overshadows Microsoft's good showing in the monthly comScore Web traffic report. Sites owned by Microsoft were the most visited in the world last month after seeing a 5 percent traffic gain.

December's top Web sites worldwide, ranked by unique visitors were:

Microsoft sites 508,659
Google sites 494,170
Yahoo! sites 476,761
Time Warner Network 260,387
eBay 251,423
Wikipedia sites 164,675
Amazon sites 151,033
Fox Interactive Media 135,730
CNET Networks 114,940
Ask Network 113,881
Apple Computer 111,131
Adobe sites 100,421
Lycos 83,724
Viacom Digital 76,171
New York Times Digital 68,010

In advance of these two items today there was a bunch of chatter about Microsoft's search efforts, including tough takes by John Battelle and Henry Blodget