RESTON, VA, May 11, 2006 - comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories. Among the notable trends during April were the marked increases in traffic to real estate sites, which grew 12 percent from the previous month and 23 percent in the past year.  Homestore.com Network and MSN Real Estate led the category with 11.1 and 5.8 million visitors, respectively.   

 

"Americans' interest in real estate sites ballooned recently, due to the general angst in the real estate market and also because of some Web site innovations within the category. While visitation is up 23 percent versus year ago, the most significant gains have occurred during the past few months," said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix.  "With the Fed raising rates and inventories on the rise, potential buyers and sellers are looking to the Internet to assess the current housing landscape.  Zillow.com, which debuted in February, is already generating high traffic (2.3 million visitors in April) by providing consumers a way to compare real estate properties and obtain in-depth information without the assistance of an agent.  Category gains may be symptomatic of a larger trend in real estate - and the Web in general - where the idea of 'consumer control' over information is causing significant shifts in shopping behavior. " 

 

Americans' nesting instinct was also evidenced by the increase in traffic to home improvement/ home furnishing sites, which, in aggregate, experienced a 12-percent increase in April versus the prior month.   Two bricks-and-mortar home improvement giants benefited from this interest online:  The Home Depot, Inc. Sites experienced a 10-percent gain versus March with 10.8 million visitors, while Lowes.com rose 15 percent, to 8.3 million visitors.

 

Monitoring the "Gas Gouge" Online

Another noteworthy trend borne out online in April was Americans' intense interest in tracking ever-rising gas prices. Gasbuddy Organization, which includes Gasbuddy.com, where consumers can search for the best local gas rates, saw visitor numbers more than triple in April compared to the previous month (from 755,000 to 2.3 million).  In addition, Fueleconomy.gov, the site operated by the U.S. Department of Energy, saw an increase of 172 percent from March to April.

 

Other Gainers

Seasonal spikes were evident in April among religion, retail gifts and flowers, and retail healthcare sites, as seen below in Table 2.  Also notable was the 66-percent increase (versus March) in traffic to Technorati.com, the self-proclaimed "authority on... weblogs," as well as increases to MLB.com (58 percent) and NFL Internet Group (29 percent), most likely attributable to the start of the baseball season and the NFL Draft, respectively.  Finally, Japanese auto makers Toyota and Honda both showed significant traffic gains, up 49 and 33 percent, respectively during April.

 

Top 50 Properties

In April, Yahoo! Sites retained its ranking as the number one property in the U.S. with 128 million visitors, while MSN-Microsoft Sites regained its number two position, attracting more than 120 million visitors.  On a worldwide basis, MSN-Microsoft Sites ranked highest in unique visitors in March, followed by Google and Yahoo! Sites, according to comScore's World Metrix, which was previewed for the first time last week. 

 

Wikipedia Sites enjoyed another strong month in the U.S., reaching number 13 in the April ranking with a 17-percent increase compared to March.  On a global basis, Wikipedia Sites ranked 7^th in the March World Metrix report.

 

Domestically, the Real.com Network jumped nine spots to number 24 in April, drawing more than 23 million visitors, a 25-percent increase from March.  On a global basis, the Real.com Network ranked number 13, according to comScore World Metrix.

 

"It is interesting to see the global relationship of the top U.S. Web properties," commented Mr. Daboll. "As the share of the U.S. audience continues to become a smaller percentage of the global universe, it is critically important to understand not only how sites rank domestically, but also how they perform with audiences around the world.  Importantly, World Metrix is the only source for this information."

 

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

In April, Advertising.com extended its reach to more than 83 percent of Americans online to retail the number one position for the 24^th consecutive month.  WebMD Health Network moved up five spots to number 30, reaching more than 5 million more Americans in April than in March.  Tremor Network entered the Ad Focus ranking for the first time at number 15, reaching 40 percent of the U.S. population online.

 

TABLE 1

 

Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* April 2006 vs. March 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
Property	Mar-06 (000)	Apr-06 (000)	Percentage Change	Rank by  Unique Visitors
Total Internet Population	171,421	171,690	0%	N/A
TECHNORATI.COM	2,742	4,538	66%	200
MLB.COM	7,932	12,557	58%	62
The Mozilla Organization	4,219	6,603	57%	142
Toyota	3,510	5,228	49%	169
BIDZ.COM	2,562	3,701	44%	233
Hallmark	6,749	9,545	41%	90
Honda	3,720	4,962	33%	178
NFL Internet Group	7,240	9,313	29%	93
Real.com Network	18,920	23,571	25%	24
Shop.com Sites	7,720	9,613	25%	88

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in April 2006.

 

TABLE 2

 

Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors April 2006 vs. March 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Mar-06 (000)	Apr-06 (000)	Percentage Change
Total Internet Population	171,421	171,690	0%
Religion	16,350	24,276	48%
Retail - Health Care	19,640	24,391	24%
Incentives	14,206	16,835	19%
Retail - Flowers/Gifts/Greetings	30,085	35,473	18%
Hobbies/Lifestyle - Food	34,604	40,081	16%
e-cards	34,899	39,540	13%
Real Estate	37,989	42,675	12%
Retail - Food	12,123	13,596	12%
Hobbies/Lifestyle - Home	38,088	42,695	12%
Retail - Mall	30,281	33,923	12%

 

 

TABLE 3

 

Top 50 Properties April 2006  Total U.S. Home, Work and University Locations  Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)		Rank	Property	Unique Visitors  (000)
	Total Internet Users	171,690
1	Yahoo! Sites	128,073		26	Lycos, Inc.	23,289
2	MSN-Microsoft Sites	120,261		27	Bank of America	22,873
3	Time Warner Network	119,171		28	Disney Online	22,112
4	Google Sites	108,534		29	CBS Corporation	22,044
5	eBay	75,952		30	CareerBuilder LLC	20,919
6	Ask Network	53,767		31	Gannett Sites	20,902
7	Amazon Sites	48,371		32	Shopzilla.com Sites	20,130
8	MYSPACE.COM	48,033		33	ESPN	17,524
9	New York Times Digital	39,435		34	News Corp. Online	17,205
10	Verizon Communications Corporation	35,123		35	E.W. Scripps	16,892
11	Weather Channel, The	35,083		36	Comcast Corporation	16,743
12	United Online, Inc	30,563		37	Cox Enterprises Inc.	16,688
13	Wikipedia Sites	29,921		38	Trip Network Inc.	16,296
14	CNET Networks	29,905		39	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,976
15	Apple Computer, Inc.	28,826		40	Weatherbug Property	15,835
16	Monster Worldwide	28,439		41	WhitePages	15,270
17	Viacom Online	28,248		42	ORBITZ.COM	15,197
18	Adobe Sites	27,946		43	ARTISTdirect Network	14,905
19	Expedia Inc	27,319		44	Ticketmaster	14,853
20	AT&T, Inc.	25,543		45	Citysearch	14,800
21	Wal-Mart	24,528		46	Infospace Network	14,752
22	Vendare Media	24,229		47	WebMD Health	14,569
23	Gorilla Nation Media	24,099		48	Dell	13,918
24	Real.com Network	23,571		49	UPS Sites	13,725
25	Target Corporation	23,499		50	OVERSTOCK.COM	13,610

 

TABLE 4

 

Ad Focus Ranking April 2006  Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations  Unique Visitors (000)  Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Reach %		Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Reach %
	Total Internet Users	171,690	100%
1	Advertising.com**	142,812	83%		26	MSNBC	27,771	16%
2	Yahoo!	125,176	73%		27	Business.com Network	27,587	16%
3	ValueClick**	121,793	71%		28	WEATHER.COM	26,825	16%
4	AOL Media Network	112,457	66%		29	Vendare Media	24,229	14%
5	Google	104,454	61%		30	WebMD Health Network	23,900	14%
6	MSN	102,083	59%		31	Lycos Network	23,204	14%
7	Casale Media Network**	98,831	58%		32	Disney Online	22,112	13%
8	Tribal Fusion**	98,198	57%		33	CareerBuilder Network	21,766	13%
9	Vendare Media - TrafficMarketplace**	93,115	54%		34	CNN	21,023	12%
10	AOL	86,998	51%		35	EXPEDIA.COM*	19,266	11%
11	24/7 Real Media**	82,776	48%		36	IMDB.COM	18,623	11%
12	YAHOO.COM Home Page	82,034	48%		37	SuperPages Network	17,716	10%
13	Burst Media**	76,338	44%		38	ESPN	17,524	10%
14	DrivePM**	69,014	40%		39	REAL.COM*	17,390	10%
15	Tremor Network	68,924	40%		40	CLASSMATES.COM	17,360	10%
16	EBAY.COM	67,993	40%		41	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,976	9%
17	Blue Lithium**	60,278	35%		42	WeatherBug	15,552	9%
18	Gorilla Nation Media Network	60,201	35%		43	Travelocity All	15,363	9%
19	MSN.COM Home Page	55,632	32%		44	WhitePages Network	15,198	9%
20	Ask Network	53,767	31%		45	ORBITZ.COM	15,197	9%
21	MYSPACE.COM	48,033	28%		46	ARTISTdirect Network	14,905	9%
22	AdDynamix.com**	38,865	23%		47	CITYSEARCH.COM*	14,657	9%
23	Vibrant Media**	38,703	23%		48	BIZRATE.COM	14,500	8%
24	EBAY.COM Home Page	38,499	22%		49	MONSTER.COM*	14,154	8%
25	ABOUT.COM	34,720	20%		50	FOX Sports on MSN	14,127	8%

 

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in April.  For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the more than 171 million Internet users in April. 

* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.

** Denotes an advertising network. 

 

About comScore Media Metrix

comScore Media Metrix, a division of comScore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report - with unmatched accuracy - details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe.  comScore Media Metrix continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its Media Metrix syndicated Internet ratings - long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers - while drawing upon comScore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements.  All comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

 

About comScore Networks

comScore Networks provides unparalleled insight into consumer behavior and attitudes. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore explicit permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes.  comScore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI.  comScore services are used by global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia.  For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

 

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