• August 27, 2004

Nielsen//NetRatings, the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis, reported Friday that at-home traffic to the John Kerry For President Web site surged 113 percent, during the week ending August 22, as Kerry and George Bush went head-to-head on political issues and the Swift Boat Veterans controversy.

New traffic data from Nielsen//NetRatings showed that at-home traffic to the John Kerry site jumped to 648,000 unique visitors with 35 percent of the site's traffic viewing an electronic petition titled, "Tell George Bush: Stop the Smear Campaign - Get Back to the Issues." The petition served to confront Swift Boat Veterans' attacks on John Kerry's military record. Nineteen percent of the site's visitors ended up completing the petition. The Bush Cheney '04 site peaked at 428,000 with 44 percent of its traffic going to a Web page featuring a game titled "Kerry's Flip Flop Olympics," which poked fun of Kerry's alleged conflicting stances on issues.