Web sessions, page views remain steady in Oct.

STAMFORD: Web surfers viewed the same number of pages and spent the same amount of time online, on average, when they logged on in October as they did in September, according to the Nielsen/NetRatings' global Internet index released on Friday.

"What this tells us is that Internet users are becoming more efficient as the medium matures, though they will still click through (ads) on the right offer," said David Day, director of analytics at ACNielsen eRatings.com, which produces the index that tracks at-home use in 18 countries.

The index represents more than 80 percent of the global Internet audience.

Internet media companies Yahoo Inc. , America Online Inc. and Microsoft Corp. maintained the top three spots in October on the Internet index.

Yahoo's unique audience rose to 84.9 million from 80 million in September while AOL's audience rose to 72.9 million from 70.8 million the previous month. MSN's audience climbed to 67.9 million from 64.6 million.

Terra Lycos' Lycos Network rose to No. 4 from No. 5 with a total unique audience of 45.6 million people. The merger of Spain's Terra Networks and the U.S. firm Lycos was completed earlier this month.

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc.'s sites moved up two spots to No. 10 in October while the sites of AOL merger partner Time Warner Inc. fell two spots to No. 12.

CNET Networks Inc. leapfrogged eight notches to No. 13 following its purchase of online technology news provider ZDNet Inc.

Song-swapping firm Napster Inc.'s sites moved up 23 spots in October to No. 22.

"Napster's remarkable growth, even in the face of legal difficulties, is testimony to the appeal of peer-to-peer, genuinely interactive sites," Day said in a statement.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.