Google's Gmail is top dog in e-mail, according to ComScore, which tracks Web site traffic.

In data for October released by ComScore, Gmail saw 287.9 million unique worldwide visitors during the period, edging out Microsoft's Hotmail, which finished with 286.2 million unique visitors. The findings were first reported by GigaOm.

In third place was Yahoo, the once mighty e-mail power, with 281.7 million, according to ComScore. Yahoo, however, holds a comfortable lead in the United States with 76.7 million, compared to second-place Gmail with 69.1 million and third-place Hotmail with 35.5 million.

The data appears to end any dispute about Gmail's dominance in the global market. Last summer, Google claimed to be the largest based on its own internal numbers but the company's assertion wasn't backed up by third-party data.