Nielsen has released its quarterly rankings report of the top 10 online parent companies/divisions, the top 10 web brands and the latest Australian internet usage trends.

Google maintains its top position for both the parent and brand rankings, while Microsoft (including NineMSN) took out second place in parent companies ranking and NineMSN/MSN ranked second for online brands.

Facebook continues to dominate Australians’ time spent online, accounting for close to eight hours (7:53:32) of the average internet users’ time in March 2010.

YouTube’s time spent online was also on par with some of the major publishers, which Nielsen said demonstrated the level of consumer engagement with online video content.

“While Google and Facebook stand out in the Australian online market as the brands with the most reach and the biggest share of users’ time respectively, it is interesting to see that brands featuring a great deal of locally produced content like Ninemsn and Yahoo7, News Digital Media and Fairfax Media maintain their position amongst the Top 10 in terms of reaching Australians as they have for some time,” comments Matt Bruce, managing director of Nielsen’s online business in Australia.

Australian’s total monthly internet usage peaked at close to one full day in March – according to the report, the average Australian internet user is now spending a total of 23 hours and 58 minutes online per month.