• by January 18, 2002

Jupiter Media Metrix today released the Media Metrix December 2001 U.S. Top 50 Web and digital media property ratings. Among notable trends in December is the number of Top Newcomer sites to enter the Media Metrix reports. Appearing in the ratings for the first time and attracting more than 500,000 unique visitors, December's 34 Top Newcomers range from search engines for online gamblers to religion sites to Santa sites.

“A varied and robust list of newcomer websites signals continuing and growing demand for online services,” said Charles Buchwalter, VP of media research at JMM. “While a few of December's new sites were reflective of the holiday-shopping season, there were a large number of new portals and search sites appealing to targeted communities.”

According to JMM, Spiritual growth has been a recurring theme among the Newcomer lists in recent months, and December is no exception. Interviewwithgod.com, which creates movies that center on bible verses, had 617,000 visitors; and Greatday.com, which offers motivational passages for each day of the year, had 511,000 visitors.

Also, never have so many portals and search engines appeared in the Top Newcomer list in a single month. Netster.com, which provides search and portal functionality to those who are redirected to the site after mistyping their desired URL, was the Top Newcomer with 3.0 million visitors; Gambleup.com, a search engine for online gamers and gamblers, had 904,000 visitors; Pluckie.com, a search engine which counts on users to nominate listings, had 878,000 visitors; and Ubbi.com, a full-service Spanish- language portal, had 569,000 visitors.

Additionally, JMM reports that Noradsanta.com, the North American Aerospace Defense Command's Santa-tracking site, had 1.6 million visitors; Jewelry.com, which provides information to novice jewelry buyers, had 990,000 visitors; Gourmetgiftmail.com, which delivers food gifts, had 2.0 million visitors; and TV-products.net, which compiles gifts and gadgets offered on television, had 521,000 visitors.

Promotional sites also did well. Hugsforacure.ca, Avon's site to raise money for breast-cancer research, had 1.0 million visitors; Thebounce.com, which offers tips on using Bounce dryer sheets, had 858,000 visitors; and Campbellscook.com, a site for Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, had 647,000 visitors.

Among the top 10 gaining categories in December 2001, five were retail related and two were entertainment related. The top three according to their increase in audience reach were: retail-mall sites, which increased 13 points to 35% reach; free Web hosting sites, which increased six points to 43% reach; and community-family sites, which increased five points to 24% reach.

The top three gaining properties according to their increase in traffic versus the previous month include: Bookspan Property, a book-shopping site, which increased 164% to 6.5 million unique visitors; Hallmark, among the few free greeting-cards sites, which increased 68% to 9.0 million unique visitors; and Netsol.com, a site owned by the website infrastructure company Verisign, which increased 53% to 7.8 million unique visitors.