Google now nation’s top Web site

Google has surpassed Yahoo to become the most popular Web site in the United States, according to comScore Inc.’s rankings by the number of unique monthly visitors.

Google Inc. has long been the Internet’s leader in search, but its audience has trailed Yahoo Inc.’s when counting other services such as e-mail and photo sharing.

April’s numbers, which Internet tracking firm comScore plans to formally release today, show Google on top for the first time.

The lead is tiny – 466,000 visitors out of about 141 million apiece. And while such measures are good as a gauge, they aren’t known for precision. In fact, rival rankings from Nielsen Online already had Google as the top Web brand.

Still, comScore’s finding is one more hint of Google’s dominance over Internet pioneer Yahoo.

•DuPont executives said Wednesday that a new joint venture with a Danish company will enable the production of an alternative fuel that costs less than conventional ethanol and won’t drive up food prices.

Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont has partnered with Genencor, a division of Danisco, to develop and commercialize cellulosic ethanol, or fuel derived from nonfood sources. The companies plan to invest $140 million in the U.S.-based venture over the next three years and hope to have a commercial-scale demonstration facility operating by 2012.

The venture, to be called DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, will focus initially on making fuel from the leaves and stalks of corn and from sugar cane bagasse, the remnants of sugar cane stalks after they are crushed for juice. The company plans to eventually explore fuel derived from wheat straw, as well as a variety of energy crops and other biomass sources.

•General Electric Co. plans to auction off its appliances business, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

GE has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to run an auction for the appliance division, according to the newspaper, which quoted unidentified sources. The sale could yield between $5 billion and $8 billion, the Journal reported.

Spokesmen for the Fairfield, Ct.-based industrial conglomerate and Goldman Sachs would not comment.

GE last year took in $11.6 billion in its sale of its plastics division. Chief executive Jeff Immelt has been under pressure to restructure the industrial and financial conglomerate, particularly since last month’s surprising first-quarter earnings report that profit fell 6 percent.