With Yahoo’s recent rejection of Microsoft’s $42 billion bid, all eyes are on Yahoo. comScore, a leading internet research company, recently posted the January 2008 visitor counts accumulated by vertical market categories across the web.

Interestingly, Yahoo surpassed Google with 138 million visits while Google came in a near second, at 134 million unique visitors. With Microsoft at a distant 119 million, the lead Microsoft could get over Google by acquiring Yahoo is enticing.

Are we in recession or are we not, that is the question. If we are in recession, it stands to reason people would be looking up tax info and career sites. But, why are visits to travel sites up also?

According to comScore.com, tax preparation sites received a 202 percent increase in traffic over December, making it the top gaining category in January. 24.8 million career seekers flocked to CareerBuilder, LLC while by Yahoo! HotJobs attracted 17.4 million, and Monster welcomed 17.1 million visitors. Political websites saw a 65 percent increase to 13.8 million visitors over December 2007.

More curiously, travel sites stats revealed increasing ground/cruise visitor traffic up 27 percent to 11.3 million visitors, car rental sites up 26 percent with 5.1 million visits, and hotels/resort sites up 23 percent with almost 31 million visitors.

So, who plans a big vacations during a recession? The jobless?

Take a look at all the comScore figures across the board here:

www.comScore.com