• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 22, 2005

Web sites offering tax information drew 20.5 million visitors last month--more than three times the 6.1 million Web users who visited tax sites in December, according to data released yesterday by comScore Networks. Of those tax-related destinations, the government's Web site IRS.gov drew almost 11 million visitors in January--up from 3.2 million from December. HRBlock.com also lured 4.1 million visitors--a 636 percent increase over the 558,000 visitors in December.

With many resolving to lose weight in the New Year, weight loss site eDiets.com saw its January traffic more than double, from 3.5 million to 7.9 million month-over-month. Weight Watchers International also had an increase in visitors--from 2.4 million to 4.3 million from December to January.

Internet users also turned increasingly to job sites in January--particularly to CareerBuilder.com, which saw a monthly traffic increase to 19.2 million from 10.9 million in December.

Consumers also seem to start planning vacations as soon as the holidays are over, with visits to sites related to cruises, airlines, hotels, and general information all increasing about 30 percent compared to December.

The presidential inauguration also gave a boost to JibJab Media--which released "Second Term," a new animated inaugural-themed spot, last month. Traffic to JibJab, now hosted by Yahoo!, increased from 1.8 million in December to 3.1 million in January.