Comscore MMX Releases Top 50 Web Rankings for January
Preparing for Tax Season Ranks as Top Priority as Americans Begin the New Year
Politics, Careers, Real Estate, and Travel Also Witness Strong Growth
RESTON, VA, February 18, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties for January 2008 from the Comscore MMX service. The month saw increased visits to tax, politics, career, real estate and travel-related sites.
“The new year represents a time for Americans to reflect on the past year and plan for the coming year, whether it’s searching for a new job, a new residence, or preparing for tax season,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “There was also a huge surge in activity at political content sites as the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries kicked off with the Iowa caucuses in early January.”
Tax Preparation Causes Category to Surge
The official beginning of tax season sent Americans online in droves, driving the tax category up 202 percent to more than 23 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category in January. IRS.gov led the category with 12.5 million visitors (up 181 percent), followed by TaxACT with 5.8 million visitors (up more than 1,000 percent), and H&R Block with 5.3 million visitors (up 312 percent).
Heated Presidential Primaries Boost Traffic to Politics Sites
As the presidential primaries kicked off, the politics category jumped 65 percent to 13.8 million visitors as Americans went online for news coverage and opinions and to visit candidate Web sites. BarackObama.com led the category with 2.2 million visitors, up 429 percent from December, followed by HillaryClinton.com with 1.1 million visitors (up 202 percent). On the Republican side, MikeHuckabee.com attracted 937,000 visitors, up 96 percent, while JohnMcCain.com grew 261 percent to 596,000 visitors.
New Year = New Career, Americans Search the Web for Jobs
As many Americans reevaluated their current career situations with the New Year, the career services and development category experienced a 31-percent gain for the month. The category was led by CareerBuilder LLC with 24.8 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! HotJobs with 17.4 million visitors and Monster with 17.1 million visitors.
Real Estate Category Experiences Seasonal Growth
Concerns over a shaky real estate market, along with those resolving to move residences in 2008, precipitated a 28-percent gain to 42 million visitors to the real estate category in January. Move Network led the category with 10.1 million visitors (up 49 percent), followed by Yahoo! Real Estate with 4.6 million visitors (50 percent), and Rent.com with 3.5 million visitors (up 51 percent).
Winter Weather Prompts Vacation Planning
Travel-related sites experienced an increase in traffic as people looked to escape the winter doldrums and take advantage of post-holiday travel deals. Ground/cruise sites gained 27 percent to 11.3 million visitors, while car rental sites grew 26 percent to 5.1 million visitors, and hotels/resorts gained 23 percent to nearly 31 million visitors.
Top 50 Properties
Yahoo! Sites continued to lead as the top property with more than 138 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with nearly 135 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 119 million visitors. Beginning with January Comscore MMX data, Time Warner Network has now been divided into AOL LLC, which includes all AOL related entities, and Time Warner – Excluding AOL. During the month, large increases were experienced by the following properties; Disney Online (up four spots to position 21), and Expedia Inc. (up nine spots to 32). CareerBuilder LLC entered the ranking this month grabbing position 27.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform A, the ad network combining Advertising.com, Tacoda, AOL, and Quigo, debuted this month in the top spot in the Ad Focus Ranking, reaching 91 percent of the more than 184 million Americans online. Substantial gains were achieved by Adconion Media Group (up four spots to 14), PrecisionClick (up six spots to 35), and Kontera (up four spots to 36). Three entities joined the ranking this month; Turn, Inc., IACAS Network, and CNN.
TABLE 1
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.) | ||||
Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||||
Dec-07 | Jan-08 | % Change | Rank by Unique Visitors | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 183,619 | 184,239 | 0 | N/A |
TaxACT | 421 | 5,803 | 1,277 | 182 |
H&R Block | 1,294 | 5,337 | 312 | 201 |
IRS.GOV | 4,442 | 12,495 | 181 | 82 |
Kayak.com Network | 3,234 | 6,871 | 112 | 150 |
Intuit | 7,096 | 14,979 | 111 | 64 |
Weight Watchers International | 2,287 | 4,552 | 99 | 240 |
PCH.COM | 4,900 | 8,953 | 83 | 108 |
CareerBuilder LLC | 13,914 | 24,752 | 78 | 27 |
Job.com Sites | 3,567 | 5,654 | 59 | 190 |
ED.GOV | 4,314 | 6,828 | 58 | 152 |
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in January 2008
TABLE 2
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.) | |||
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
Dec-07 | Jan-08 | % Change | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 183,619 | 184,239 | 0 |
Taxes | 7,729 | 23,336 | 202 |
Politics | 8,384 | 13,807 | 65 |
Career Services and Development | 49,150 | 64,144 | 31 |
Real Estate | 32,747 | 41,991 | 28 |
Ground/Cruise | 8,909 | 11,303 | 27 |
Car Rental | 4,065 | 5,130 | 26 |
Retail - Computer Software | 26,756 | 33,548 | 25 |
Financial Information/Advice | 32,109 | 39,792 | 24 |
Hotels/Resorts | 25,131 | 30,958 | 23 |
Online Travel Agents | 34,581 | 42,530 | 23 |
TABLE 3
Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) | ||||||
Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) |
| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 184,239 | |||||
1 | Yahoo! Sites | 138,059 | 26 | Superpages.com Network | 26,237 | |
2 | Google Sites | 134,886 | 27 | CareerBuilder LLC | 24,752 | |
3 | Microsoft Sites | 119,297 | 28 | Glam Media | 24,626 | |
4 | AOL LLC | 109,442 | 29 | Shopzilla.com Sites | 24,210 | |
5 | Fox Interactive Media | 83,752 | 30 | Monster Worldwide | 24,185 | |
6 | eBay | 78,789 | 31 | CBS Corporation | 23,643 | |
7 | Amazon Sites | 59,003 | 32 | Expedia Inc | 23,454 | |
8 | Wikipedia Sites | 55,589 | 33 | Gannett Sites | 22,997 | |
9 | Time Warner - Excluding AOL | 52,645 | 34 | Bank of America | 22,990 | |
10 | Ask Network | 52,102 | 35 | Yellowpages.com Network | 22,869 | |
11 | New York Times Digital | 48,471 | 36 | United Online, Inc | 22,065 | |
12 | Apple Inc. | 48,413 | 37 | E.W. Scripps | 20,952 | |
13 | Viacom Digital | 42,011 | 38 | Photobucket.com LLC | 20,497 | |
14 | Weather Channel, The | 40,478 | 39 | Real.com Network | 19,747 | |
15 | CNET Networks | 34,859 | 40 | Lycos Sites | 19,484 | |
16 | Facebook.com | 33,861 | 41 | WebMD Health | 19,219 | |
17 | Adobe Sites | 31,169 | 42 | ESPN | 19,166 | |
18 | Wal-Mart | 30,747 | 43 | WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites | 19,115 | |
19 | AT&T, Inc. | 27,890 | 44 | NBC Universal | 17,828 | |
20 | Target Corporation | 27,874 | 45 | Best Buy Sites | 17,813 | |
21 | Disney Online | 27,524 | 46 | Weatherbug Property | 17,456 | |
22 | Verizon Communications Corporation | 27,220 | 47 | iVillage.com: The Womens Network | 17,383 | |
23 | Gorilla Nation | 27,119 | 48 | Cox Enterprises Inc. | 17,286 | |
24 | Comcast Corporation | 27,068 | 49 | AmericanGreetings Property | 16,771 | |
25 | Craigslist.org | 26,660 | 50 | Hearst Corporation | 16,708 |
TABLE 4
Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) | ||||||||
Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 184,239 | 100.0 | ||||||
1 | Platform-A** | 166,763 | 91% | 26 | Vibrant Media** | 75,953 | 41% | |
2 | Advertising.com**† | 163,837 | 89% | 27 | CPX Interactive** | 71,667 | 39% | |
3 | Yahoo! Network** | 155,822 | 85% | 28 | MySpace.com* | 68,641 | 37% | |
4 | Google Ad Network** | 143,200 | 78% | 29 | Ebay.com | 66,861 | 36% | |
5 | Specific Media** | 142,290 | 77% | 30 | Gorilla Nation Media | 65,282 | 35% | |
6 | ValueClick Networks** | 137,548 | 75% | 31 | YouTube.com | 61,375 | 33% | |
7 | Yahoo! | 136,243 | 74% | 32 | Undertone Networks** | 59,273 | 32% | |
8 | Tribal Fusion** | 131,840 | 72% | 33 | MSN.com Home Page | 58,548 | 32% | |
9 | 126,569 | 69% | 34 | Ask Network | 52,102 | 28% | ||
10 | Casale Media Network** | 121,893 | 66% | 35 | PrecisionClick** | 51,156 | 28% | |
11 | AOL Media Network | 109,442 | 59% | 36 | Kontera** | 50,481 | 27% | |
12 | MSN-Windows Live | 103,424 | 56% | 37 | Amazon.com | 48,324 | 26% | |
13 | DRIVEpm** | 102,085 | 55% | 38 | Business.com Network | 48,181 | 26% | |
14 | adconion media group** | 98,378 | 53% | 39 | AdDynamix.com** | 46,625 | 25% | |
15 | Yahoo.com Home Page | 95,460 | 52% | 40 | MapQuest | 44,537 | 24% | |
16 | Traffic Marketplace** | 95,254 | 52% | 41 | Turn, Inc** | 42,103 | 23% | |
17 | Tremor Media | 93,929 | 51% | 42 | YuMe Video Network | 41,666 | 23% | |
18 | AOL | 91,005 | 49% | 43 | About | 41,487 | 23% | |
19 | 24/7 Real Media** | 90,483 | 49% | 44 | Ebay.com Home Page | 39,169 | 21% | |
20 | ADSDAQ by ContextWeb** | 88,984 | 48% | 45 | Vizi Media** | 38,066 | 21% | |
21 | Burst Media** | 88,097 | 48% | 46 | IACAS Network | 37,526 | 20% | |
22 | AdBrite** | 85,308 | 46% | 47 | The Nabbr Network | 36,643 | 20% | |
23 | Collective Media** | 79,832 | 43% | 48 | Facebook.com | 33,861 | 18% | |
24 | interCLICK** | 79,369 | 43% | 49 | Weather.com | 31,464 | 17% | |
25 | Centro | 78,460 | 43% | 50 | CNN | 29,157 | 16% |
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in January. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 74 percent of the more than 184 million Internet users in January.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes an advertising network.
† Advertising.com is also included in the Platform A entity beginning with January 2008 MMX data.
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. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate
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