• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, April 1, 2013

According to comScore, Valentine’s Day caused an influx of traffic at Flowers, Gifts and Greetings sites as the category swelled 35%, with more than 26 million visitors searching for unique gift ideas and the perfect e-card. Provide Commerce ranked  #1 in the category with 7.6 million visitors, followed by 1-800-Flowers.com at 3.1 million, American Greetings  with 3.1 million, FTD.com with 1.9 million, and PartyCity.com with 1.8 million. EdibleArrangements.com saw the strongest growth at three times its traffic in January with 1.8 million visitors.

Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore, notes that “... Valentine’s Day had consumers searching for gift ideas... while cars were also at the forefront of Americans’ minds in February...  high-profile Super Bowl ads... auto shows around the country... and an improving economy... has many consumers back in the market for their next car purchase...”

In February, 25.5 million consumers had pursued cars, causing a 12% spike in traffic to the Manufacturer category. General Motors ranked #1 with 7.2 million visitors (up 19%), followed by Toyota Group with 4.5 million, Ford Motor Company with 4.1 million, Honda with 3.3 million and Chrysler LLC with 2.2 million.

In February, many Americans looked to the Tax category web for help in filing their annual returns. The category grew 45% to 36 million visitors to rank as the fastest-growing category during the month. IRS.gov ranked as the fastest-growing property for the second consecutive month, up 78% to 22.6 million visitors in February.

8.4 million baseball fans visited MLB.com to get the latest news and information on their favorite teams. General Motors, despite having skipped a Super Bowl ad buy in 2013, generated a traffic boost of 19% to 7.2 million visitors on the strength of auto shows around the country.

Google Sites ranked as the #1 property in February with 189 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! with 186 million, Microsoft with 164 million and Facebook with 144 million. Sites that jumped significantly in the rankings included Adobe Sites, Tribune Interactive, and The Washington Post Company.

Among syndicated Ad Focus entities, ShareThis ranked first in February with a 93.5% reach of Americans online, followed by Yahoo! Sites at 84.2%, Google, at 82.5%, Outbrain with 81.5%, and Facebook.com at 64.7%.

For Advertising Networks, the Google Ad Network ranked #1 with a 93.3% reach, followed by Specific Media at 84.5%, AOL Advertising, 83.7% and AT&T AdWorks 82.4%.

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in February. For instance, Yahoo! Sites was seen by 84.2% of the 221 million Internet users in February.

For additional details please visit comScore here.