Comscore MMX Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for August 2008

Politics and Olympics Drive Web Traffic during the Month

Visitors Increase to Education and Retail Sites as Students go Back to School

RESTON, VA, September 16, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for August 2008 based on data from the Comscore MMX service. The Olympics and the U.S. Presidential campaign were the main drivers of Internet activity during the month, resulting in strong gains at politics, sports, news and humor sites. The start of another academic year resulted in growth at education and retail – consumer goods sites.

“The Olympics dominated the headlines in August, and Americans’ Internet activity reflected their keen interest in their country’s performance at the games,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “With the time difference between Beijing and the U.S. creating a substantial lag between many of the live events and their subsequent national broadcast, the Internet was especially critical in keeping Americans current with the latest event results and medal counts.”

Political Party Conventions and Campaign Activity Drive Traffic to Political Sites

As the Democratic National Convention closed out the month of August with the Republican National Convention following on its heels, the politics category surged 33 percent to 14 million visitors as many Americans directed their attention to this historic Presidential contest. The category, which was the fastest growing for the month, was led by BarackObama.com with nearly 4 million visitors (up 113 percent from July), while JohnMcCain.com climbed 108 percent to 1.4 million visitors.
The entertainment - humor category also witnessed strong gains this month, growing 12 percent to 16.5 million visitors, in part due to the success of a viral comedy video relating to the presidential race. Comedic video site FunnyOrDie.com jumped 256 percent to 2.4 million visitors as people flocked to the site to view Paris Hilton’s video response to John McCain’s ‘Celebrity’ ad, which featured Hilton as a way of deriding Senator Obama’s celebrity status.

Olympics Drives Surge at Sports and News Sites

The Olympics was a significant driver of Internet activity during the month of August, with official Olympic site Beijing2008.cn capturing the top spot among the fastest-gaining properties during the month. The site realized a twelvefold increase in August with 5.8 million visitors.

The Olympics generated the most substantial gains in the sports and news categories. Sports grew 26 percent to more than 93 million visitors in August, led by Yahoo! Sports with 38.5 million visitors (up 76 percent), NBC Sports with 23.8 million visitors (up 740 percent) and ESPN with 22 million visitors (up 23 percent). The category also benefitted from pre-season interest in the 2008 NFL season.
Meanwhile, general news sites grew 10 percent to 105 million visitors. MSNBC led the category with 44.5 million visitors (up 53 percent), with much of the site’s increase due to the flood of visitors to NBCOlympics.com site. Yahoo! News, ranking second in the category, grew 15 percent to 44.3 million visitors, while CNN ranked third with more than 32 million visitors (up 12 percent).

Back to School Season Prompts Growth to Education and Consumer Goods Sites

August marked the beginning of another school year for many students, resulting in gains to education and retail – consumer goods sites. Education sites grew 9 percent to 96 million visitors, with each of the five most-visited sites in the category experiencing double-digit growth during the month. The category was led by Dictionary.com with 10.9 million visitors (up 24 percent), followed by Pearson Education with 9.9 million visitors (up 30 percent) and Answers.com with 8.4 million visitors (up 26 percent).

The retail – consumer goods category grew 9 percent to 24.6 million visitors, propelled by large increases at several office supplies sites. Category-leader Staples.com Sites jumped 22 percent to nearly 8 million visitors, while Office Depot increased 10 percent to 5.3 million visitors and OfficeMax increased 39 percent to 2.6 million visitors.

Top 50 Properties

Google Sites maintained its #1 position in the Top Properties ranking, reaching 144.7 million Americans in August, while Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 141.5 million visitors and Microsoft Sites ranked third with 123.5 million visitors. Target Corporation and Bank of America both climbed three spots this month with Target rising to #22 with 30.5 million visitors and Bank of America reaching #30 with 25.6 million visitors. The beginning of football season helped propel ESPN seven positions to #36 with more than 22 million visitors. Answers.com Sites (#45), WorldNow – ABC Owned Sites (#47) and NBC Universal (#50) each entered the rankings this month.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

Platform-A, which includes Advertising.com, Quigo and other ad networks, led the Ad Focus ranking in August, reaching 90 percent of the nearly 189 million Americans online. Yahoo! Network captured the second spot reaching 162.2 million visitors. Google Ad Network followed in third position reaching 156.4 million Americans.

TABLE 1

Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)
August 2008 vs. July 2008
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: Comscore MMX

Total Unique Visitors (000)

Jul-08

Aug-08

% Change

Rank by Unique Visitors

Total Internet : Total Audience

189,134

188,937

0

N/A

BEIJING2008.CN

459

5,832

1,171

193

Activision Blizzard

1,174

4,566

289

249

NFL Internet Group

7,482

13,902

86

69

HotChalk Network

3,622

6,239

72

176

Kohls Corporation

7,568

13,016

72

75

Cablevision

4,134

5,924

43

188

Mevio Network

3,890

5,547

43

201

Symantec

5,298

7,531

42

139

Sun-Times Media Group, Inc.

3,503

4,675

33

242

Buzznet

6,772

8,991

33

113

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in August 2008

TABLE 2

Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)August 2008 vs. July 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: Comscore MMX

Total Unique Visitors (000)

Jul-08

Aug-08

% Change

Total Internet : Total Audience

189,134

188,937

0

Politics

10,576

14,040

33

Sports

74,109

93,307

26

Humor

23,542

26,464

12

Online Gambling

12,648

14,215

12

Retail - Music

17,890

20,061

12

Online Gaming

74,165

82,279

11

General News

95,321

104,969

10

Consumer Goods

22,455

24,577

9

Education

88,171

96,017

9

Gay/Lesbian

2,526

2,748

9

TABLE 3

Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)
August 2008
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Unique Visitors (000)
Source: Comscore MMX

Rank

Property

Unique Visitors

(000)

Rank

Property

Unique Visitors

(000)

Total Internet : Total Audience

188,937

1

Google Sites

144,738

26

Verizon Communications Corporation

28,496

2

Yahoo! Sites

141,549

27

Yellowpages.com Network

28,384

3

Microsoft Sites

123,466

28

Superpages.com Network

27,965

4

AOL LLC

110,623

29

Gorilla Nation

27,940

5

Fox Interactive Media

89,236

30

Bank of America

25,551

6

eBay

71,495

31

Photobucket.com LLC

25,003

7

Ask Network

58,482

32

Expedia Inc

23,926

8

Amazon Sites

57,942

33

United Online, Inc

23,920

9

Wikimedia Foundation Sites

55,423

34

Monster Worldwide

22,313

10

CBS Corporation

49,229

35

Real.com Network

22,262

11

Apple Inc.

47,578

36

ESPN

22,199

12

Turner Network

46,787

37

Demand Media

21,727

13

Viacom Digital

44,836

38

Gannett Sites

21,484

14

Glam Media

44,377

39

WordPress

21,419

15

New York Times Digital

43,367

40

Shopzilla.com Sites

21,320

16

FACEBOOK.COM

40,959

41

CareerBuilder LLC

20,803

17

Weather Channel, The

36,613

42

Weatherbug Property

20,767

18

craigslist, inc.

35,516

43

iVillage.com: The Womens Network

19,756

19

Time Warner - Excluding AOL

32,517

44

WhitePages

18,841

20

Disney Online

32,334

45

Answers.com Sites

18,700

21

Wal-Mart

31,958

46

Hearst Corporation

18,116

22

Target Corporation

30,533

47

WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites

18,104

23

Adobe Sites

30,172

48

WebMD Health

17,740

24

Comcast Corporation

29,725

49

Cox Enterprises Inc.

16,999

25

AT&T, Inc.

28,588

50

NBC Universal

16,811

TABLE 4

Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)
August 2008
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Unique Visitors (000)
Source: Comscore MMX

Rank

Property

Unique Visitors (000)

Reach %

Rank

Property

Unique Visitors (000)

Reach %

Total Internet : Total Audience

188,937

100%

1

Platform-A**

170,728

90%

26

Undertone Networks**

81,639

43%

2

Yahoo! Network**

162,224

86%

27

AdBrite**

81,310

43%

3

Google AdNetwork**

156,415

83%

28

MYSPACE.COM*

75,491

40%

4

Specific Media**

152,501

81%

29

YOUTUBE.COM

75,425

40%

5

ValueClick Networks**

150,813

80%

30

Vibrant Media**

74,792

40%

6

Tribal Fusion**

142,840

76%

31

NNN Total Newspapers: U.S.

72,202

38%

7

Yahoo!

139,807

74%

32

Gorilla Nation Media - Potential Reach††

66,124

35%

8

Google

136,484

72%

33

Ybrant - Oridian - ADdynamix Network**

61,066

32%

9

YuMe Video Network - Potential Reach††

129,871

69%

34

MSN.COM Home Page

58,727

31%

10

Casale Media - MediaNet**

129,195

68%

35

Ask Network

58,482

31%

11

Traffic Marketplace**

128,893

68%

36

EBAY.COM

58,303

31%

12

Tremor Media - Potential Reach††

126,314

67%

37

Pulse 360**

57,646

31%

13

Adconion Media Group**

124,532

66%

38

Kontera**

55,288

29%

14

24/7 Real Media**

123,808

66%

39

IAC Ad Solutions - Potential Reach††

53,677

28%

15

interCLICK**

122,478

65%

40

Intergi - Potential Reach

52,461

28%

16

Revenue Science**

121,893

65%

41

National Broadband Network - Potential Reach††

52,236

28%

17

DRIVEpm**

117,188

62%

42

IB Local Network

51,148

27%

18

CPX Interactive**

115,710

61%

43

NNN Top 25

49,070

26%

19

MSN-Windows Live

111,258

59%

44

MapQuest

47,276

25%

20

AOL Media Network

110,623

59%

45

AMAZON.COM

46,830

25%

21

ADSDAQ by ContextWeb**

108,574

57%

46

AdOn Network**

45,740

24%

22

Collective Media**

107,943

57%

47

TattoMedia**

44,278

23%

23

Burst Media**

96,648

51%

48

QuadrantONE - Potential Reach††

43,599

23%

24

Turn, Inc**

94,042

50%

49

EBAY.COM Home Page

41,831

22%

25

Centro - Potential Reach††

81,836

43%

50

FACEBOOK.COM

40,959

22%

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in August. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 74 percent of the 189 million Internet users in August.

* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.

** Denotes an advertising network.

† The Platform A ad network is an aggregation of ad servers used by the following individual advertising network entities: Advertising.com, Tacoda, AOL, Quigo and Userplane.

†† Entities followed with a “Potential Reach” notation are custom entities representing the number of unduplicated visitors to sites with which the specified ad network has contracted to deliver advertising. Unlike entities marked as advertising networks (**), those denoted with “Potential Reach” do not represent the total number of visitors actually reached by ads via the ad network.

About Comscore MMX
Comscore MMX provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. Comscore MMX reports are used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers. Comscore MMX syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate

Contact:
Sarah Radwanick
Director, Regional Product Marketing
Comscore, Inc.
+44 (0) 20 7099 1784
worldpress@comscore.com



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