* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

“Google and Microsoft continue to be locked in a battle for top of the table – in a virtual tie over the past three months,” said Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe.  “Online retailers benefited from increased browsing and buying as consumers went online to do more of their holiday shopping than ever before.  Online retailers like Dixons and Home Retail Group (Argus) posted the strongest gains among top U.K. sites.”

Holiday Season Continued to Draw Online Shoppers to Retail Sites

Once again, retail sites dominated the list of top 20 gaining sites in the U.K., representing more than half of the list in December.  In fact, the top 3 gainers were shopping sites, led by Dell with 3.9 million visitors (a 52-percent gain due largely to traffic to Entertainthenation.com, part of the Dell property), Game.co.uk with 2.2 million visitors (a 35-percent increase), and Dixons Stores Group with 7.3 million visitors (a 34-percent increase), reappearing on the list of top gainers for the second month in a row and ranking Number 16 in the most-visited site list. 

Shopping sites that appeared on the list for three straight months include HMV with 4 million visitors (a 23-percent increase), Play.com Sites with 5.6 million visitors (a 20-percent increase), and Wal-Mart with 3.3 million visitors (a 14-percent increase), attributable mostly to ASDA traffic. 

Appearing for the second consecutive month on the list of top gainers, Home Retail Group (formerly GUS) was the 10^th most visited site overall, gaining 14 percent to 9.9 million visitors.  Apple Computer, Inc. was the 12^th most visited site overall, gaining 17 percent to 9.4 million visitors. 

Royal Mail Group, the Web property used to ship many of the Christmas gifts bought online, was up 16 percent to 3.7 million visitors.

*Ranking based on the top 100 U.K. properties in December 2006.

** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

About comScore World Metrix

comScore World Metrix is the first service to continuously measure and report online behaviour on a world-wide basis, providing visitation metrics and demographic characteristics for Web site audiences around the world.  With active representation of countries that comprise the vast majority of the global Internet population, World Metrix provides its clients with worldwide Internet population estimates and harmonized online performance metrics based on a consistent methodology across all countries.  More than 100 clients subscribe to comScore’s World Metrix service, including 8 of the top 10 interactive advertising agencies.

About comScore Networks
comScore Networks is a global leader in measuring the digital age. 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 behaviour, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panellists 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 behaviour 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.