RESTON, VA, May 11, 2007 – comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties and categories for April 2007.  The month saw Internet users researching information about the pet food recall on the FDA and other related web sites, as well as heightened interest in Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NBA.  Traffic to gay/lesbian and women’s community sites also saw significant increases in April, as did online personals.  In addition, traffic to flowers, gifts & greetings sites jumped as consumers prepared for Mother’s Day and graduation.

 

“Events like the pet food recall, which affected millions across the nation, demonstrate how powerful a medium the Web has become for disseminating important information,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.  “Ten years ago, an event such as this could have been even more problematic if the millions of potentially affected consumers were not able to quickly and easily access information vital to their pets’ safety and well-being.”

 

Pet Food Recall Causes a Stir Online

As the top-gaining property in April, FDA.gov saw traffic surge 72 percent to 4.6 million visitors as numerous consumers sought information on the pet food recall.  The Nestlé property also experienced significant gains in April, up 34 percent to 4.7 million visitors, driven largely by traffic to the Purina Web site.

 

Sports Fans Flock to Web in April

Several major events in the sports world caused traffic to spike at the major U.S. sports leagues’ official sites.  The beginning of baseball season caused traffic to MLB.com to increase 57 percent to 12.8 million visitors in April, just one month after the beginning of spring training saw visitation rise 47 percent.  Meanwhile, rabid football fans swarmed to NFL Internet Group sites for coverage of the 2007 NFL Draft, sending traffic up 38 percent to 8.8 million visitors.  Finally, the NBA Internet Network experienced a 22-percent gain to 5.3 million visitors as the NBA playoffs kicked off in April.

 

Community Sites and Online Personals Gain Ground in April

With a 24-percent increase versus March, the gay/lesbian community sites ranked as the top-gaining category overall for the month, led by Planetout.com with 767,000 visitors (up 17 percent), Adam4Adam.com with 348,000 visitors, and BigMuscle.com with 238,000 visitors (up 92 percent).  Women’s sites enjoyed a 7-percent increase in April, led by iVillage.com: The Women’s Network with 17 million visitors (up 9 percent), Glam Media with 12.2 million visitors (up 22 percent), and Everyday Health with 7.7 million visitors (up 3 percent).

 

Personals sites also gained in April (up 5 percent versus March), led by True.com with 4.9 million visitors (up 10 percent), Yahoo! Personals with 4.8 million visitors (up 14 percent), and Singlesnet.com with 3.9 million visitors (up 23 percent).

 

Americans Get a Jump Start in Remembering Mom and Grads in April

E-cards and flowers, gifts & greetings sites also saw significant increases in April, as Americans prepared for Mother’s Day and graduation.  Leading the way in both categories were AmericanGreetings Property with 9.4 million visitors (up 24 percent) and Hallmark—the fifth biggest gainer overall—with 7.8 million visitors (up 40 percent).   Invitation site Evite.com was a top e-card site with 6 million visitors (up 3 percent), while 1-800 Flowers.com represented the top retail flower site with 1.9 million visitors (up 49 percent).

 

Top 50 Properties

April’s Top 50 Properties saw Yahoo! Sites and Time Warner Network claim the top two positions once again.  Google Sites, Fox Interactive Media, and Wikipedia Sites all gained one spot within the top ten to positions three, five, and seven, respectively. ARTISTdirect Network moved up nine positions to number 41, attracting 15 percent more unique visitors than last month.  Shopzilla Sites gained eight spots to grab the number 32 position in April, while Facebook enjoyed a 10-percent increase to claim the 22^nd spot in the rankings.

 

Top 50 Ad Focus

In April, Advertising.com extended its reach to 88 percent of Americans online to claim the number one position for the 36th consecutive month.  ValueClick, Tribal Fusion, and Blue Lithium each gained one position within the top ten as well.  Real Cities Network entered the ranking at number 36, reaching 16 percent of the U.S. online population, while PrecisionClick and Interclick both enjoyed four-spot increases to positions 17 and 30, respectively.

 

TABLE 1

Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* April 2007 vs. March 2007 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
Property	Mar-07  (000)	Apr-07 (000)	Percentage Change	Rank by  Unique Visitors
Total Internet Population	175,653	178,079	0%	N/A
FDA.GOV	2,707	4,644	72	203
MLB.COM	8,203	12,843	57	61
Apple Inc.	27,317	38,789	42	13
Unister GmbH	3,918	5,483	40	171
Hallmark	5,575	7,778	40	118
NFL Internet Group	6,343	8,764	38	100
Lee Enterprises, Incorporated	4,162	5,743	38	165
Nestle	3,524	4,736	34	193
PIMP-MY-PROFILE.COM	3,262	4,369	34	213
Experian Interactive	10,858	13,960	29	54

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in April 2007.

 

TABLE 2

Top 10 Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors April 2007 vs. March 2007 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Mar-07  (000)	Apr-07 (000)	Percentage Change
Total Internet : Total Audience	175,653	178,079	0%
Community - Gay/Lesbian	2,032	2,517	24
e-cards	29,656	34,268	16
Retail - Computer Hardware	53,799	61,497	14
Retail - Flowers/Gifts/Greetings	28,853	32,025	11
Downloads	90,211	97,919	9
Community - Women	54,169	58,155	7
Entertainment - News	36,280	38,909	7
Retail - Food	12,528	13,319	6
Job Search	15,097	15,925	5
Personals	22,378	23,555	5

 

 

TABLE 3

Top 50 Properties April 2007  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	178,079
1	Yahoo! Sites	131,392		26	Verizon Communications Corporation	21,903
2	Time Warner Network	124,443		27	Bank of America	21,843
3	Google Sites	119,640		28	CareerBuilder LLC	20,750
4	Microsoft Sites	115,605		29	Gannett Sites	20,630
5	Fox Interactive Media	80,789		30	Idearc Media	19,970
6	eBay	79,167		31	Disney Online	19,626
7	Wikipedia Sites	49,632		32	Shopzilla.com Sites	19,040
8	Amazon Sites	48,914		33	Photobucket.com LLC	19,020
9	Ask Network	47,926		34	CRAIGSLIST.ORG	18,934
10	New York Times Digital	43,127		35	Real.com Network	18,795
11	Weather Channel, The	39,555		36	Travelport	18,507
12	Viacom Digital	39,514		37	Comcast Corporation	18,302
13	Apple Inc.	38,789		38	Yellowpages.com Network	17,750
14	CNET Networks	30,789		39	ESPN	17,689
15	Adobe Sites	29,477		40	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	16,979
16	Gorilla Nation	28,573		41	ARTISTdirect Network	16,910
17	Wal-Mart	28,362		42	WebMD Health	16,883
18	AT&T, Inc.	26,608		43	WhitePages	16,788
19	Target Corporation	25,064		44	Cox Enterprises Inc.	16,433
20	Expedia Inc	24,435		45	Weatherbug Property	16,394
21	United Online, Inc	23,548		46	Citysearch	15,934
22	FACEBOOK.COM	23,042		47	NBC Universal	15,277
23	Lycos Sites	22,584		48	USPS.COM	14,907
24	Monster Worldwide	22,062		49	JPMorgan Chase Property	14,848
25	CBS Corporation	21,952		50	Ticketmaster	14,768

 

TABLE 4

Ad Focus Ranking April 2007 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	178,079	100%
1	Advertising.com**	156,037	88%		26	MSN.COM Home Page	50,559	28%
2	ValueClick**	132,000	74%		27	Vibrant Media**	50,410	28%
3	Yahoo!	129,617	73%		28	ContextWeb**	48,656	27%
4	Tribal Fusion**	116,051	65%		29	Ask Network	47,926	27%
5	Casale Media Network**	115,617	65%		30	Interclick**	46,678	26%
6	AOL Media Network	114,948	65%		31	EBAY.COM Home Page	46,078	26%
7	Google	113,555	64%		32	Business.com Network	38,992	22%
8	Blue Lithium**	111,195	62%		33	ABOUT.COM	37,621	21%
9	Vendare NetBlue - TrafficMarketplace**	107,788	61%		34	YOUTUBE.COM	37,511	21%
10	Specific Media**	104,148	58%		35	WEATHER.COM	29,472	17%
11	MSN-Windows Live	99,649	56%		36	Real Cities Network	28,043	16%
12	AOL	93,178	52%		37	CNN	26,018	15%
13	YAHOO.COM Home Page	88,447	50%		38	Undertone Networks**	24,974	14%
14	DRIVEpm**	87,815	49%		39	FACEBOOK.COM	23,042	13%
15	24/7 Real Media**	86,785	49%		40	Nickelodeon Kids & Family	22,321	13%
16	adconion media group**	84,612	48%		41	Lycos Network	22,100	12%
17	PrecisionClick**	76,509	43%		42	CareerBuilder Network	21,544	12%
18	Tremor Media	76,440	43%		43	IMDB.COM	20,796	12%
19	CPX Interactive**	73,459	41%		44	SuperPages.com Network	19,943	11%
20	Burst Media**	73,376	41%		45	Disney Online	19,626	11%
21	EBAY.COM	71,119	40%		46	The WebMD Health Network	19,160	11%
22	AdDynamix.com**	69,106	39%		47	PHOTOBUCKET.COM	18,199	10%
23	AdBrite**	67,284	38%		48	Yellowpages.com Network	17,750	10%
24	MYSPACE.COM	66,778	37%		49	ESPN	17,689	10%
25	Gorilla Nation Media	60,103	34%		50	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	16,979	10%

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 178 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 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 used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers – while drawing upon comScore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements.  comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

 

About comScore

comScore, Inc. is a global leader in measuring the digital world. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore 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 more than 700 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Starcom USA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia.  For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.