Nielsen//NetRatings reports that surfers from home flocked to government sites during the week ending August 31. Surfers logged on to the Web to access the National Do Not Call Registry, read about
Mars, and obtained information about national parks. Traffic to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission skyrocketed 665%, making it the fastest growing site for the week ending August 31. Last week marked
the final week for Americans to include their phone numbers on the registry for the October 1 deadline. More than 97% of the site's audience went to donotcall.gov. The historic synchronization of
Earth's and Mars' orbits last week drove traffic to U.S. National Aeronautics & Space Administration. The site (www.nasa.gov) attracted 590,000 unique visitors, increasing 40% week over week. The U.S.
Office of Personnel Management attracted 306,000 visitors, jumping 38%. Surfers flocked to the USAJobs pages (www.usajobs.opm.gov) where government job openings were listed. The Labor Day holiday made
the U.S. Dept. of the Interior and the U.S. Dept. of Commerce site a popular destination for campers. Top pages to the U.S. Dept. the Interior site revealed that surfers accessed the National Park
Service (www.nps.gov) page, increasing traffic by 19% to 670,000 visitors. Top pages within the U.S. Dept. of Commerce site were to the National Weather Services pages (www.noaa.gov), driving traffic
up by 18% to nearly 1.3 million visitors.
