Comscore MMX Releases Top 50 Web Rankings for February
Taxes and Valentine’s Day Dominate the Rankings
Politics and News Sites See Gains Due to Interest in Presidential Primaries and Shaky Economy
RESTON, VA, March 19, 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 February 2008 based on data from the Comscore MMX service. February, a month that generally exhibits lower visitation totals as a result of having fewer days, saw increased visitation to tax, greetings, politics and news sites.
“February is one of the busiest times of the year for greetings and gift sites with the celebration of Valentine’s Day,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “These sites are particularly convenient for the procrastinators among us who wait until the last minute to buy their loved ones a gift.”
Tax Category Continues as Fastest-Gaining for the Second Consecutive Month
The tax category ranked as the fastest-gaining site category with a 34-percent increase to more than 31 million visitors as Americans continued preparing their taxes in advance of the April 15 deadline. The category was led by IRS.gov with nearly 18 million visitors (up 43 percent), followed by TaxACT with 9.6 million visitors (up 66 percent) and H&R Block with 6.7 million visitors (up 26 percent).
Valentine’s Day Spurs Growth to Greeting Sites
The Valentine’s Day holiday caused both the flowers/gifts/greetings and e-card site categories to grow 17 and 14 percent, respectively. The flowers/gifts/greetings category saw substantial gains by flower sites with, ProFlowers.com (up 244 percent to 3.8 million visitors), FTD.com (up 273 percent to 3.8 million visitors), and 1-800-flowers.com (up 125 percent to 2.7 million visitors) each showing strong growth. The e-cards category was led by AmericanGreetings Property with nearly 20 million visitors, followed by Evite.com with 5.8 million visitors and Hallmark.com with 5.1 million visitors.
Presidential Primaries Drive Traffic to Candidates’ Sites
With much-hyped Super Tuesday (February 5) and other primaries across the country occurring in February, the politics site category continued to see growth for the second consecutive month, increasing 9 percent to 15 million visitors. BarackObama.com led the category with 3.2 million visitors, up 46 percent from January, followed by HillaryClinton.com with 1.5 million visitors (up 31 percent). Republican-party nominee John McCain’s site increased 49 percent to 888,000 visitors.
News Sites Experience Increases in February
News categories, both business/finance and general news, saw increases in February with economic worries and presidential primaries dominating the national agenda. Business/finance news sites gained 6 percent to reach nearly 62 million visitors, with Yahoo! Finance, AOL Money & Finance, and MSN Money leading the category. The general news category gained 2 percent to nearly 107 million visitors led by Yahoo! News, CNN, and MSNBC.
Top 50 Properties
Yahoo! Sites continued to lead as the top property with 137 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with nearly 136 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with more than 118 million visitors. Wikipedia Sites and Ask Network each moved up one position in the top 10 to spots seven and nine, respectively. Glam Media jumped 10 spots to reach position 18 with more than 29 million visitors during the month. Tax season propelled IRS.gov into the Top 50 ranking, capturing position 45.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform A, the ad network combining Advertising.com, Tacoda, AOL, and Quigo, led the Ad Focus ranking in February, reaching 90 percent of Americans online. Ad networks DRIVEpm and Traffic Marketplace each gained two positions, capturing positions 11 and 14, respectively, while Collective Media jumped four spots to position 19. IB Local Network entered the ranking this month at position 39, reaching 26 percent of the more than 185 million Americans online in the month.
TABLE 1
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.) | ||||
Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||||
Jan-08 | Feb-08 | % Change | Rank by Unique Visitors | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 184,239 | 185,017 | 0 | N/A |
Nascar.com | 2,196 | 5,170 | 135 | 200 |
TaxACT | 5,803 | 9,622 | 66 | 101 |
The Mozilla Organization | 9,127 | 14,992 | 64 | 63 |
123GREETINGS.COM | 2,977 | 4,763 | 60 | 222 |
Trilegiant Corporation | 2,904 | 4,543 | 56 | 234 |
Oprah.com | 3,455 | 5,307 | 54 | 196 |
IRS.gov | 12,495 | 17,863 | 43 | 45 |
Heavy Networks | 3,755 | 5,227 | 39 | 198 |
WildTangent Network | 6,553 | 8,818 | 35 | 110 |
DishNetwork.com | 3,809 | 4,955 | 30 | 207 |
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in February 2008
TABLE 2
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.) | |||
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
Jan-08 | Feb-08 | % Change | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 184,239 | 185,017 | 0 |
Taxes | 23,336 | 31,380 | 34 |
Flowers/Gifts/Greetings | 36,178 | 42,489 | 17 |
e-cards | 34,260 | 39,120 | 14 |
Car Rental | 5,130 | 5,841 | 14 |
Politics | 13,807 | 15,050 | 9 |
Auto - Manufacturer | 24,580 | 26,062 | 6 |
Business Finance - News/Research | 58,540 | 61,871 | 6 |
Hotels/Resorts | 30,958 | 31,805 | 3 |
Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories | 16,713 | 17,166 | 3 |
General News | 104,929 | 106,899 | 2 |
TABLE 3
Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) | ||||||
Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) |
| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 185,017 | |||||
1 | Yahoo! Sites | 136,767 | 26 | AT&T, Inc. | 26,385 | |
2 | Google Sites | 135,970 | 27 | Shopzilla.com Sites | 24,782 | |
3 | Microsoft Sites | 118,355 | 28 | Comcast Corporation | 24,466 | |
4 | AOL LLC | 108,911 | 29 | Yellowpages.com Network | 23,691 | |
5 | Fox Interactive Media | 83,638 | 30 | CBS Corporation | 23,564 | |
6 | eBay | 77,864 | 31 | Gannett Sites | 23,407 | |
7 | Wikipedia Sites | 55,906 | 32 | Expedia Inc | 23,150 | |
8 | Amazon Sites | 55,172 | 33 | Bank of America | 23,111 | |
9 | Ask Network | 54,120 | 34 | Monster Worldwide | 22,389 | |
10 | Time Warner - Excluding AOL | 52,661 | 35 | CareerBuilder LLC | 22,357 | |
11 | New York Times Digital | 47,632 | 36 | United Online, Inc | 21,966 | |
12 | Apple Inc. | 47,048 | 37 | Photobucket.com LLC | 20,917 | |
13 | Viacom Digital | 41,216 | 38 | Atrinsic, Inc. | 20,473 | |
14 | Weather Channel, The | 41,057 | 39 | E.W. Scripps | 20,005 | |
15 | CNET Networks | 33,320 | 40 | AmericanGreetings Property | 19,884 | |
16 | Facebook.com | 32,436 | 41 | WebMD Health | 19,637 | |
17 | Adobe Sites | 30,620 | 42 | WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites | 19,426 | |
18 | Glam Media | 29,136 | 43 | Real.com Network | 18,498 | |
19 | Wal-Mart | 27,651 | 44 | NBC Universal | 17,863 | |
20 | Superpages.com Network | 27,526 | 45 | IRS.gov | 17,863 | |
21 | Verizon Communications Corporation | 27,101 | 46 | ESPN | 17,836 | |
22 | Disney Online | 27,094 | 47 | Lycos Sites | 17,702 | |
23 | Craigslist, Inc. | 26,822 | 48 | Cox Enterprises Inc. | 17,603 | |
24 | Gorilla Nation | 26,710 | 49 | Demand Media | 17,532 | |
25 | Target Corporation | 26,631 | 50 | Weatherbug Property | 17,256 |
TABLE 4
Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) | ||||||||
Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 185,017 | 100.0 | ||||||
1 | Platform-A** | 166,459 | 90% | 26 | Vibrant Media** | 75,034 | 41% | |
2 | Advertising.com** | 163,260 | 88% | 27 | CPX Interactive** | 71,379 | 39% | |
3 | Yahoo! Network** | 156,582 | 85% | 28 | MYSPACE.COM* | 67,957 | 37% | |
4 | Google Ad Network** | 146,953 | 79% | 29 | EBAY.COM | 66,768 | 36% | |
5 | Specific Media** | 140,395 | 76% | 30 | Undertone Networks** | 65,205 | 35% | |
6 | ValueClick Networks** | 137,582 | 74% | 31 | YouTube.com | 63,921 | 35% | |
7 | Yahoo! | 135,007 | 73% | 32 | Gorilla Nation Media | 62,877 | 34% | |
8 | Tribal Fusion** | 132,827 | 72% | 33 | MSN.COM Home Page | 57,558 | 31% | |
9 | 128,397 | 69% | 34 | Ask Network | 54,120 | 29% | ||
10 | Casale Media Network** | 124,593 | 67% | 35 | Quigo** | 53,462 | 29% | |
11 | DRIVEpm** | 112,458 | 61% | 36 | Ybrant/AdDynamix Network** | 53,431 | 29% | |
12 | AOL Media Network | 108,911 | 59% | 37 | PrecisionClick** | 53,114 | 29% | |
13 | adconion media group** | 107,234 | 58% | 38 | Kontera** | 50,998 | 28% | |
14 | Traffic Marketplace** | 105,079 | 57% | 39 | IB Local Network | 47,927 | 26% | |
15 | MSN-Windows Live | 102,839 | 56% | 40 | Vizi Inc** | 46,988 | 25% | |
16 | Tremor Media | 97,681 | 53% | 41 | Turn, Inc** | 46,302 | 25% | |
17 | Yahoo.com Home Page | 94,250 | 51% | 42 | MapQuest | 45,027 | 24% | |
18 | ADSDAQ by ContextWeb** | 93,786 | 51% | 43 | AMAZON.COM | 44,926 | 24% | |
19 | Collective Media** | 93,296 | 50% | 44 | Business.com Network | 43,838 | 24% | |
20 | 24/7 Real Media** | 90,941 | 49% | 45 | About | 40,572 | 22% | |
21 | AOL | 90,316 | 49% | 46 | EBAY.COM Home Page | 38,598 | 21% | |
22 | Burst Media** | 90,255 | 49% | 47 | The Nabbr Network | 37,289 | 20% | |
23 | interCLICK** | 89,242 | 48% | 48 | IACAS Network | 37,211 | 20% | |
24 | AdBrite** | 82,029 | 44% | 49 | Facebook.com | 32,436 | 18% | |
25 | Centro | 80,159 | 43% | 50 | Weather.com | 31,792 | 17% |
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 73 percent of the more than 185 million Internet users in February.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes an advertising 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. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate
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