Commentary

Web Attracts Planners At Beginning Of The Year

by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, March 2, 2007

Web Attracts Planners At Beginning Of The Year

In keeping with annual trends, says comScore Media Metrix, January saw significant increases in visitation to tax, travel, careers and real estate sites. Heightened interest in tax software and Microsoft's Vista boosted traffic to the Computer Software category, while speculation about 2008 Presidential candidates drove traffic to politically-oriented sites.

Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix, said "As we've witnessed on an annual basis, consumers turned to the Web at the beginning of the year in a very utilitarian fashion, with an eye toward planning." Key growth categories (over December) are summarized as follows:

The Tax category was the top-gaining category for the month. Led by IRS.gov, the category saw a 199-percent increase to 22.4 million visitors.

As retail-oriented categories returned to previous visitation levels after the holiday season, the Computer Software category bucked the trend with a 20-percent surge in January. The highly anticipated rollout of Microsoft Vista also drove category traffic,
The Hotels/Resorts category experienced a 29-percent boost in visitation, led by Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Online with 6 million visitors and Hotels.com with 5.2 million visitors. Travelocity grew 55 percent to 11.8 million visitors, while Expedia led the Online Travel Agents category with 25.4 million visitors.
Many Americans resolved to reassess their career situations, as 31 percent of American Internet users visited a Career Services site in January. Training and Education sites increased 26 percent to 9.9 million visitors in January.
Visitation to the real estate category increased 28 percent versus December, reflecting seasonal increases after the New Year. Move Network led the category with 8.5 million visitors, up 44 percent versus December, followed by Yahoo! Real Estate and Homegain.com
Speculation surrounding key players in the 2008 presidential elections fueled a 25-percent increase to political sites in January. Leading the category was Capitol Advantage, followed by WorldNetDaily and Moveon.org. The presumptive frontrunners for the democratic presidential nomination saw their official campaign sites finish among the category's top 15, led by Hillary Clinton with 313,000 unique visitors, followed by Barack Obama with 297,000 unique visitors, and John Edwards posting 202,000 unique visitors.

The following tables show gainers and top properties for January, 2007

Top 10 Gaining Properties (% change) in Unique VisitorsJanuary 2007 vs. December 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users
*Property*	*Dec-06* *(000)*	*Jan-07* *(000)*	*Percentage* *Change*	*Rank by* *Unique Visitors*
Total Internet Population	174,199	175,559	1%	N/A
IRS.GOV	4,372	13,333	205	208
Intuit	3,969	11,464	189	227
ED.GOV	3,790	7,105	87	236
Travelocity	7,600	11,799	55	114
CareerBuilder LLC	13,919	21,077	51	55
Move Network	5,916	8,527	44	154
Classified Ventures	7,516	10,331	37	116
Dominion Enterprises	5,127	6,940	35	178
Belo	3,598	4,814	34	249
CA.GOV	5,128	6,849	34	177
Source: comScore Media Metrix

Top 10 Gaining Categories (Unique Visitors)January 2007 vs. December 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users
	*Dec-06* *(000)*	*Jan-07* *(000)*	*Percentage Change*
Total Internet : Total Audience	174,199	175,559	1%
Taxes	7,505	22,420	199
Hotels/Resorts	25,248	32,659	29
Real Estate	31,226	39,845	28
Training and Education	7,865	9,888	26
Politics	6,192	7,733	25
Job Search	11,796	14,534	23
Career Services and Development	44,715	54,131	21
Gay/Lesbian	1,843	2,231	21
Computer Software	25,260	30,216	20
Online Travel Agents	40,699	47,841	18
Source: comScore Media Metrix

Top 50 Properties (Unique Visitors (000)) January 2007 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Locations
*Rank*	*Property*	*Unique Visitors* *(000)*	*Rank*	*Property*	*Unique Visitors* *(000)*
	Total Internet Users	175,559
1	Yahoo! Sites	129,153	26	Verizon Communications Corporation	22,648
2	Time Warner Network	117,229	27	CBS Corporation	22,587
3	Microsoft Sites	114,936	28	CareerBuilder LLC	21,077
4	Google Sites	113,434	29	Shopzilla.com Sites	19,801
5	eBay	80,681	30	Travelport	19,720
6	Fox Interactive Media	74,831	31	FACEBOOK.COM	18,961
7	Amazon Sites	50,886	32	Gannett Sites	18,671
8	Ask Network	49,103	33	Real.com Network	18,532
9	Wikipedia Sites	42,880	34	Comcast Corporation	17,698
10	New York Times Digital	40,137	35	Photobucket.com LLC	17,620
11	Apple Computer, Inc.	38,634	36	E.W. Scripps	17,579
12	Viacom Digital	37,303	37	WebMD Health	17,076
13	Weather Channel, The	35,433	38	Idearc Media	16,884
14	CNET Networks	30,764	39	WhitePages	16,636
15	AT&T, Inc.	28,627	40	Cox Enterprises Inc.	16,245
16	Wal-Mart	27,031	41	ESPN	16,209
17	Adobe Sites	26,267	42	Yellowpages.com Network	16,148
18	Expedia Inc	25,377	43	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,529
19	Disney Online	25,005	44	CRAIGSLIST.ORG	15,251
20	Monster Worldwide	24,976	45	NFL Internet Group	15,089
21	United Online, Inc	24,461	46	Best Buy Sites	15,039
22	Lycos, Inc.	24,178	47	NBC Universal	14,959
23	Target Corporation	24,015	48	UPS Sites	14,787
24	Gorilla Nation	23,708	49	Weatherbug Property	14,696
25	Bank of America	23,130	50	JPMorgan Chase Property	14,636
Source: comScore Media Metrix

Ad Focus Ranking Unique Visitors (000) January 2007 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Locations
*Rank*	*Property*	*Unique Visitors (000)*	*Reach %*	*Rank*	*Property*	*Unique Visitors (000)*	*Reach %*
	Total Internet Users	175,559	100%
1	Advertising.com**	148,439	85%	26	Ask Network	49,103	28%
2	ValueClick**	129,665	74%	27	EBAY.COM Home Page	45,126	26%
3	Yahoo!	127,460	73%	28	CPX Interactive**	43,207	25%
4	Tribal Fusion**	115,944	66%	29	Vibrant Media**	41,377	24%
5	Casale Media Network**	109,865	63%	30	ABOUT.COM	35,050	20%
6	AOL Media Network	108,466	62%	31	Interclick**	34,732	20%
7	Google	107,105	61%	32	YOUTUBE.COM	30,358	17%
8	Vendare NetBlue - TrafficMarketplace**	101,076	58%	33	Business.com Network	26,656	15%
9	MSN-Windows Live	97,449	56%	34	WEATHER.COM	25,636	15%
10	Blue Lithium**	94,858	54%	35	Disney Online	25,005	14%
11	24/7 Real Media**	90,469	52%	36	Lycos Network	24,026	14%
12	AOL	88,738	51%	37	Undertone Networks**	22,286	13%
13	DRIVEpm**	88,157	50%	38	CareerBuilder Network	21,954	13%
14	YAHOO.COM Home Page	86,976	50%	39	IMDB.COM	21,272	12%
15	Burst Media**	77,036	44%	40	CNN	21,246	12%
16	Tremor Media	75,294	43%	41	The WebMD Health Network	20,196	12%
17	EuroClick**	75,134	43%	42	FACEBOOK.COM	18,961	11%
18	EBAY.COM	72,817	41%	43	EXPEDIA.COM*	17,822	10%
19	PrecisionClick**	70,131	40%	44	SuperPages	16,884	10%
20	AdBrite**	66,942	38%	45	PHOTOBUCKET.COM	16,772	10%
21	MYSPACE.COM	61,524	35%	46	WhitePages Network	16,568	9%
22	AdDynamix.com**	59,420	34%	47	ESPN	16,209	9%
23	Gorilla Nation Media	58,955	34%	48	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,529	9%
24	ContextWeb**	52,914	30%	49	Travelocity All	15,457	9%
25	MSN.COM Home Page	50,112	29%	50	WHITEPAGES.COM	15,457	9%
Source: comScore Media Metrix

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 73 percent of the more than 175 million Internet users in January. * Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.** Denotes an advertising network.

For the complete report, please visit here.

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About the Author

Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.