Winter Olympics Capture Mindshare; Valentine’s Day Retailers Experience Softness

Comscore MMX Releases February Top 50 Web Rankings and Analysis

RESTON, VA, March 9, 2006 – Comscore MMX today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories. While much of February’s Web activity was seasonal, such as filing 2005 tax returns or shopping for Valentine’s Day gifts, interest in the 2006 Winter Olympics also drove significant activity.

“Although Valentine’s Day drove up traffic in several categories versus the previous month, those categories actually experienced declines when compared to February of the prior year.” said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of Comscore MMX. “Conversely, heavy interest in the 2006 Winter Olympics propelled the Sports category to a 16 percent traffic gain and 32 percent increase in engagement over February 2005. It appears that the Olympics took away mindshare from Valentine’s Day during the middle part of the month, possibly resulting in softer sales for Valentine’s Day retailers.”

Consumers Love the Web as a Valentine’s Day Resource – But Picture Not as Rosy as Last Year

As might be expected in February, Internet traffic increased in the Flowers/Greetings/Gifts, e-Cards and Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories categories compared to the previous month. Flowers/Gifts/Greetings saw the second largest traffic increase among all categories for the month, as it jumped 25 percent to 36.8 million visitors. E-Cards ranked as the fourth highest gaining category increasing 10 percent to 38.3 million visitors, while Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories ranked fifth increasing 8 percent to 14.6 million visitors.

Among the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category, each of the major retailers saw notable traffic gains. American Greetings (up 33 percent to 11.6 million visitors) and Hallmark (up 34 percent to 8.9 million visitors) led the way for sites specializing in greetings, while FTD.com (up 156 percent to 4.9 million visitors) and 1-800-FLOWERS.com (up 77 percent to 3.1 million visitors) attracted the most visitors among online florists. RedEnvelope.com’s 43 percent growth to 1.7 million visitors and Tiffany & Co.’s 52 percent growth to 1.3 million visitors helped propel the Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories category during February.

Compared to February of last year, however, the numbers are not quite as favorable. The Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category experienced the most significant declines from last year losing 10 percent of its traffic, while e-Cards (down 7 percent) and Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories (down 4 percent) also saw drop-offs.

Olympics Coverage Draws Heavy Traffic

The 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy drew millions of people to the Web in February, propelling the Sports category onto the list of top 10 gaining categories. U.S. Olympic team sites drew the most Olympic-related traffic with 2.6 million visitors, which marked a 34 percent increase from the prior month. The biggest percentage gainer among Olympic sites was Torino2006.org, which saw a 445 percent jump in visitation from January, reaching 1.5 million visitors. Several other sports sites were buoyed by Olympics coverage, including ESPN (up 7 percent to 17.8 million visitors), Yahoo! Sports (up 18 percent to 13 million visitors), and AOL Sports (up 44 percent to 11.7 million visitors). Interest from NASCAR fans geared up online in February with the Daytona 500, propelling the site onto the list of top 10 gaining properties with 4.7 million visitors (up 90 percent).

Early Tax Filing Equals Early Refunds

Visitation to Tax sites rose for the second consecutive month, as increasing numbers of people are looking to file their tax returns. Following a dramatic 215 percent traffic increase from December to January, visitation to the Taxes category grew another 28 percent in February to 29.7 million visitors.

With its wealth of tax information resources and links to online filing sites, IRS.gov saw traffic increase 38 percent to 15.9 million visitors to rank as the top site in the category. Other tax sites primarily dedicated to online filing also saw significant gains. TurboTax.com, drew 7.8 million visitors in February (up 42 percent), while TaxACTOnline.com attracted 3.7 million visitors (up 39 percent) and TaxACT.com drew 3.5 million visitors (up 57 percent). Compared to February 2005, TurboTax gained 13 percent, TaxACT.com grew 7 percent, and TaxACTOnline.com drew 42 percent more traffic. These strong gains indicate that more Americans are, in fact, filing their taxes online, rather than just retrieving tax-related information.

Political Sites Shoot Up in February Rankings

An abundance of political stories surfaced in February, driving interested parties to the political sites for extended coverage and opinions. Most notably, Vice President Dick Cheney’s now infamous hunting mishap piqued interest among the mainstream, increasing traffic to the Politics category by 18 percent to 6.4 million visitors, making the Politics the third fastest-growing category for the month. February’s traffic gains marked the biggest increase in the category since Hurricane Katrina coverage drove people to the Web in September 2005. Among the top gaining sites in the Politics category for the month were AnnCoulter.org, which increased 273 percent to 512,000 visitors, and RealClearPolitics.com, which increased 167 percent to 382,000 visitors.

Top 50 Properties

In February, the Top 50 Properties saw Ask Jeeves and Verizon Communications Corporation each move up one spot, attracting just over 43 million and 32 million unique visitors, respectively. Both The Weather Channel and Wikipedia sites continued to climb the rankings, with each drawing 7 percent more unique visitors than in January. Finally, as more people prepared their taxes, IRS.GOV entered the ranking at number 36 with just under 16 million unique visitors.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

February saw few large shifts in the Ad Focus Ranking. Advertising.com remained number one for the 22nd consecutive month, reaching 80 percent of all Americans online. Google and Casale Media Network both inched up one spot, with each network now reaching 55 percent of the online U.S. population. Beyond the top ten, Sports entities ESPN and Fox Sports on MSN jumped to numbers 31 and 36, respectively, while Mamma Media Solutions increased 5 spots to number 33, reaching nearly 17 million Americans online.

TABLE 1

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in February 2006.

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Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in February. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 70 percent of the more than 166 million Internet users in February. The notation “**” indicates that the entity is an advertising network.

About Comscore MMX

Comscore MMX, a division of Comscore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report – with unmatched accuracy – 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 continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its MMX syndicated Internet ratings – long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers – while drawing upon Comscore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. All Comscore MMX syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About Comscore Networks

Comscore Networks provides unparalleled insight into consumer behavior and attitudes. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given Comscore explicit permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. Comscore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, Comscore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. Comscore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. Comscore services are used by global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Orbitz. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

Press
Bill Daddi
Daddi Brand Communications
646-370-1341
press@comscore.com