IBegin head Ahmed Farooq is shaking things up by publicizing Google’s take on top IYPs. Per Google’s methodology, Citysearch leads the way with 7.4 million uniques and a 3.2 percent reach. It beats Yellowpages.com with 6.8 million uniques, and Superpages.com with 6.2 million uniques. Next up are Yelp with 4.6 million uniques and Local.com with 3.2 million uniques.

No surprise, this take on the data doesn’t make everyone happy. HelloMetro CEO Clark Scott, for instance, comments on Ahmed’s techsoapbox blog that “this is looking at a single domain for stats. We own 1500 city guides with their own Yellow Page data. i.e. HelloChicago, HelloSeattle, and HelloBoston. Combined we get over 3.4 million unique visitors a month. This is why we usually fly under the radar when these type (of) studies are done.”

Shawn the “Newbie” (yeah, right!!!) also thinks the study “must only be considering one domain. I know for a fact that YELLOWPAGES.COM is an entire network that includes AOL IYP, Yahoo Local, Yahoo IYP, 411.COM, Areaguides.net, Mapquest, MSN Live, addresses.com etc. There’s no way that a network like that comes 2nd to any url on your list.”

Web traffic ranking is a funny thing, and that’s why I cite it sparingly. Ben Saren at CitySquares, for instance, sent me some Quantcast stats showing how he cleans Citysearch’s clock in Beantown with 600,000 uniques expected for August. But those numbers, of course, are probably for his entire New England and New York network versus Boston.citysearch.com. Whether or not the numbers mean very much, as an industry booster, it is certainly nice to see the guys at CitySquares making progress.

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