• April 16, 2001

The Internet ratings report for the week ending April 8 from Nielsen//NetRatings, shows that traffic to IRS.gov spiked 61% at work as surfers logged onto the site to beat the April 16 tax-filing deadline.

Traffic to the site soared to more than 1 million unique visitors, making it one of the fastest growing domains for the week ending April 8. The site drew 681,000 unique visitors the previous week. Surfers spent an average of 11 minutes at the site, with most surfers logging on to the page for electronic tax filing.

"IRS.gov has become the go-to online resource for timely and useful tax information," said Sean Kaldor, vice president, eCommerce, NetRatings. "It strays from the stereotype of a typical government Web site, reaching out to the average taxpayer with well organized content, providing assistance and support, and helping decrease the tax season burden."