End of Summer Boosts Traffic to Online Video, Back-to-School and Football Sites

Dell Recall Drives Traffic; Xerox’s “Let’s Say Thanks” Campaign Delivers Users; Back-to-School Season Triggers Research and Online Shopping Spikes

RESTON, VA, September 15, 2006 – Comscore MMX today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties and categories for August. Youtube.com continued its rise, increasing 19 percent to reach 19.1 million unique visitors, making it the 32nd most-visited Web property in the U.S., an eight-spot increase from July when it debuted in the Comscore MMX Top 50 for the first time.

“As user-generated content increases in popularity, sites like YouTube.com will continue to become a destination of choice for people wanting to share their video, ideas, photos, and the like with friends and family,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “We’re seeing consumer products companies like Coca-Cola, which was one of the top-ten gaining properties in August, follow suit by inviting consumers to post their videos online. This type of marketing creates a forum for consumers to interact with the product and solidify a relationship with the brand.”

In another example of brand-relationship building, the popularity of Xerox’s “Let’s Say Thanks” campaign, which enables consumers to send free postcards to overseas military personnel, was largely responsible for making the Xerox Corporation the top-gaining Web property during August with 5.6 million visitors, a 628-percent increase versus July. Conversely, the much publicized recall of Dell laptops caused 18.1 million Americans to visit the Dell property, a 23-percent increase versus July.

Back-to-School Means Back Online

As consumers prepared for “Back-to-school” season, education and reference sites saw traffic increases, as did retailers such as Staples.com Sites (7 million visitors and a 32-percent increase versus July), Office Depot (6.7 million visitors and an 18-percent increase), and OfficeMax (3.2 million visitors and a 46-percent increase), which represented three of the top four sites in the Consumer Goods category in August.

Sites providing resources for school-aged children and their parents also saw increases as evidenced by the 48-percent surge in traffic at AOL Research & Learn (4.7 million visitors), the 36-percent increase to Greatschools.net (3.4 million visitors), and the 26-percent increase to Coca-Cola-sponsored Family Education Network (2.5 million).

Notable increases at sites dedicated to college students and graduates included Allschools.com Network, which increased 66 percent to 386,000 visitors; Collegegrad.com, which increased 61 percent to 412,000 visitors; and Finaid.org, which increased 55 percent to 400,000 visitors.

Finally, test prep companies College Board Property and Princeton Review.com saw sharp increases versus July, rising 22-percent (to 1.9 million visitors) and 28-percent (to 910,000 visitors), respectively. Additionally, Classmates.com, the site dedicated to connecting high school and college classmates, increased 23 percent to 17.2 million visitors in August.

Federal Reserve and Earnings Announcements Drive Traffic at Online Trading Sites

Traffic at online trading sites increased 10 percent to 12.4 million visitors, following second quarter earnings announcements and the Federal Reserve’s decision to not raise interest rates. Fidelity Investments led the category with 3.7 million visitors (up 8 percent), followed by Sharebuilder.com with 2.3 million visitors (up 112 percent) and Scottrade Sites with 1.7 million visitors (up 20 percent).

“Investors were likely accessing their accounts with greater frequency this August to assess the impact of quarterly earnings results, geopolitical uncertainty, and ongoing concern regarding the direction of interest rates following the Federal Reserve’s early August announcement that the target rate for overnight bank loans would not be increased after 17 straight increases since June 2004,” Flanagan said.

Americans Gear up for Football Season

Demonstrating America’s obsession with football, the second-biggest gaining property in August was the NFL Internet Group, which grew 71 percent to 13.4 million visitors. Within the sports category, the NFL Internet Group ranked fourth, bested by ESPN with 17.9 million visitors, Fox Sports on MSN with 14.1 million visitors and Yahoo! Sports with 13.8 million visitors.

Sports and Outdoors retailers also saw an overall uptick in traffic, driven by sites such as FootballFanatics.com, which rose 68 percent to 900,000 visitors, and the NFLshop.com, which jumped 139 percent increase to 820,000 visitors.

Top 50 Properties

In August, Yahoo! Sites maintained the number one ranking, attracting more than 131.3 million visitors. After re-entering the ranking in July, Dell jumped 12 spots to number 35, drawing 18.1 million unique visitors, a 23-percent increase from the previous month. Ticketmaster, Citysearch, WebMD Health, and Craigslist.org all re-entered the ranking, at numbers 42, 46, 48, and 49, respectively.

Top 50 Ad Focus

Advertising.com retained the top spot in the August Ad Focus ranking for the 28th consecutive month, reaching 85 percent of all U.S. Internet users. Within the top ten Ad Focus ranking ValueClick, Tribal Fusion, and Google each gained one spot, moving to numbers two, four, and seven, respectively. Burst Media gained three spots to secure the number 10 position, reaching 53 percent of Americans online, up from 48 percent in July. Advertising networks ContextWeb and Undertone Networks debuted within the top 50 in August, claiming the 25th and 28th spots, respectively. Finally, online video site Youtube.com and networking site Classmates.com also entered the Ad Focus ranking this month.

TABLE 1

Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors*
August 2006 vs. July 2006
Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users
Source: Comscore MMX

Property

Jul-06 (000)

Aug-06 (000)

Percentage Change

Rank by Unique Visitors

Total Internet Population

173,191

173,407

0%

N/A

Xerox Corp

775

5,643

628%

170

NFL Internet Group

7,832

13,355

71%

66

eWoss

2,416

3,817

58%

236

Forbes Property

5,644

7,840

39%

122

MOVIES.COM

3,369

4,543

35%

205

MonsterCommerce

3,624

4,874

34%

193

Staples.com Sites

5,332

7,034

32%

135

The Away Network

2,959

3,860

30%

231

The Mozilla Organization

7,436

9,674

30%

94

Coca-Cola Company

3,219

4,171

30%

21

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

TABLE 2

Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors
August 2006 vs. July 2006
Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users
Source: Comscore MMX

Jul-06 (000)

Aug-06 (000)

Percentage Change

Total Internet : Total Audience

173,191

173,407

0%

Training and Education

8,240

9,886

20%

Religion

19,440

22,659

17%

Education - Information

52,512

60,229

15%

Retail - Food

12,308

13,876

13%

Consumer Goods

23,336

26,215

12%

Comparison Shopping

55,787

61,918

11%

Online Trading

11,280

12,388

10%

Reference

69,623

75,904

9%

Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories

13,794

14,939

8%

Ground/Cruise

10,386

11,221

8%

TABLE 3

Top 50 Properties
August 2006
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 Users

173,407

1

Yahoo! Sites

131,250

26

CBS Corporation

24,512

2

Time Warner Network

121,595

27

Bank of America

23,449

3

Microsoft Sites

119,089

28

Real.com Network

20,904

4

Google Sites

107,989

29

CareerBuilder LLC

20,657

5

eBay

80,164

30

Gannett Sites

20,586

6

Fox Interactive Media

72,107

31

Shopzilla.com Sites

19,708

7

Ask Network

53,816

32

YOUTUBE.COM

19,089

8

Amazon Sites

48,570

33

Vendare Media

18,863

9

New York Times Digital

38,276

34

Comcast Corporation

18,417

10

Verizon Communications Corp

37,997

35

Dell

18,146

11

Weather Channel, The

34,619

36

ESPN

17,850

12

Viacom Digital

31,988

37

Cox Enterprises Inc.

17,606

13

CNET Networks

31,771

38

ARTISTdirect Network

16,645

14

Apple Computer, Inc.

31,582

39

WhitePages

16,358

15

Wikipedia Sites

31,038

40

Weatherbug Property

16,064

16

United Online, Inc

29,513

41

E.W. Scripps

15,894

17

Adobe Sites

29,063

42

Ticketmaster

15,186

18

Expedia Inc

27,765

43

Trip Network Inc.

15,032

19

AT&T, Inc.

26,319

44

iVillage.com: The Womens Network

14,931

20

Monster Worldwide

26,110

45

EA Online

14,811

21

Wal-Mart

26,049

46

Citysearch

14,785

22

Gorilla Nation Media

25,976

47

FACEBOOK.COM

14,782

23

Lycos, Inc.

25,803

48

WebMD Health

14,778

24

Target Corporation

25,408

49

CRAIGSLIST.ORG

14,612

25

Disney Online

24,851

50

Capital One

14,590

TABLE 4

Ad Focus Ranking August 2006
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 Users

173,407

100%

1

Advertising.com**

148,005

85%

26

EBAY.COM Home Page

39,795

23%

2

ValueClick**

131,004

76%

27

Vibrant Media**

37,912

22%

3

Yahoo!

129,845

75%

28

Undertone Networks**

33,147

19%

4

Tribal Fusion**

113,571

65%

29

ABOUT.COM

33,003

19%

5

AOL Media Network

113,055

65%

30

Business.com Network

29,987

17%

6

Casale Media Network**

107,570

62%

31

Lycos Network

25,608

15%

7

Google

103,671

60%

32

Disney Online

24,851

14%

8

MSN-Windows Live

101,225

58%

33

WEATHER.COM

23,928

14%

9

Vendare Media - TrafficMarketplace**

95,260

55%

34

CNN

21,849

13%

10

Burst Media**

92,062

53%

35

CareerBuilder Network

21,560

12%

11

AOL

88,939

51%

36

YOUTUBE.COM

19,089

11%

12

24/7 Real Media**

87,894

51%

37

GameDaily Custom Network

19,062

11%

13

YAHOO.COM Home Page

86,359

50%

38

Vendare Media

18,863

11%

14

Blue Lithium**

73,414

42%

39

EXPEDIA.COM*

18,792

11%

15

EBAY.COM

71,840

41%

40

SuperPages

18,443

11%

16

Tremor Network

70,207

40%

41

IMDB.COM

18,287

11%

17

PrecisionClick**

68,997

40%

42

ESPN

17,850

10%

18

DRIVEpm**

66,471

38%

43

The WebMD Health Network

17,588

10%

19

AdBrite**

61,643

36%

44

CLASSMATES.COM

17,207

10%

20

Gorilla Nation Media Network

60,368

35%

45

ARTISTdirect Network

16,645

10%

21

MYSPACE.COM

55,778

32%

46

Travelocity All

16,620

10%

22

MSN.COM Home Page

54,520

31%

47

WhitePages Network

16,279

9%

23

Ask Network

53,816

31%

48

CNET

16,126

9%

24

AdDynamix.com**

42,084

24%

49

WeatherBug

15,887

9%

25

ContextWeb**

40,056

23%

50

WHITEPAGES.COM

15,139

9

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 75 percent of the more than 173 million Internet users in August.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes 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 is a global leader in measuring the digital age. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given Comscore 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 Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

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