RESTON, VA, November 13, 2006 - comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties and categories for October.  Americans were drawn in particular to e-card, party, kids, toy, family and women's Web sites as Halloween approached.  Also of note this month was the precipitous drop in traffic to online gambling sites (down 27 percent) following anti-gambling legislation announced in early October.  In preparation for the November elections, Americans flocked to political Web sites, with traffic increasing 10 percent to 8.6 million visitors.  The advent of basketball season brought on a flood of traffic to the NBA Internet Network (up 46 percent to 3.8 million visitors).  Wikipedia Sites and YouTube also showed significant growth in October, up 11 percent to 38.9 million visitors and 13 percent to 23.5 million visitors, respectively.

"In addition to the normal Halloween seasonality that we've become accustomed to in October, politics impacted Web traffic this October as the fight for control of Congress was clearly top-of-mind with many Americans," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.  "Along these lines, the legislation passed by Congress to restrict online gambling made a marked dent in traffic to these sites - after seeing double-digit gains for these sites in September."

Americans Prepare for Battle of Red vs. Blue

As Americans prepared to cast their votes in November, the most popular political sites included Capitol Advantage with 731,000 visitors (down 1 percent versus the prior month), Townhall.com with 626,000 visitors (up 63 percent) and Worldnetdaily with 536,000 visitors (up 7 percent).  The category's top gainers included Discoverthenetwork.org, the self-proclaimed "Guide to the Political Left," which was up 104 percent to 134,000 visitors, and NationalJournal.com, a daily news site focused on politics and government, which was up 63 percent to 164,000 visitors.

October Sees Spooky Seasonality

Halloween seasonality was a significant driver of traffic this month, inspiring huge growth in visitation to online greetings and purveyors of costumes.  In fact, the E-cards category rose 21 percent during October, with each of the top 10 e-card sites experiencing growth.  American Greetings Property led the category with 12.6 million visitors (a 66-percent increase), followed by Evite with 6.6 million visitors (an 11-percent increase) and Hallmark.com with 6.1 million visitors (a 19-percent increase).

Notable retailers that enjoyed a Halloween traffic bump included Celebrate Express, Inc. with 2.6 million visitors (a 13-percent increase); Partycity.com with 2.5 million visitors (a 180-percent increase); and RedEnvelope.com with 2.2 million visitors (a 143-percent increase).  Traffic to BuyCostumes.com was the impetus behind the 54-percent leap in traffic to parent company Liberty Media Holdings, which was the 4^th biggest overall gainer in October, with 12.5 million visitors.  Several sites geared towards kids and families also saw increases in October, including Disney Online with 25.1 million visitors (an 8-percent increase); Nickelodeon Network with 12.6 million visitors (a 9-percent increase); and the Family Network, which was the top-gaining property overall with 6.1 million visitors (a 121-percent increase).

Additionally, the Toys category rose 13 percent overall, led by Mattel Sites, with 9.8 million visitors (a 22-percent increase), and Toys "R" Us Sites with 8 million visitors (a 29-percent increase).  Women's sites that offered Halloween crafts and holiday-related content were up 17 percent overall, led by iVillage.com: The Women's Network, which increased 24 percent to 17.7 million visitors; Condenet Sites, which increased 9 percent to 8.1 million visitors; and Womensforum Sites, which increased 9 percent to 6.5 million visitors.  BHG.com, which on its own grew 50 percent to 5.7 million visitors, was a significant driver of the 32-percent increase realized by the Meredith Corporation Web property, which reached 9 million visitors in October and was the 9^th biggest gainer overall.

Top 50 Properties

During October, Yahoo! Sites retained its ranking as the number one property, reaching nearly 130 million unique visitors in the U.S.  Wikipedia Sites moved up one position to the number 10 spot, attracting 11 percent more visitors than in September, while Wal-Mart moved up four positions to number 17.  YouTube.com jumped three spots to number 26, gaining 13 percent to 23.5 million visitors.  iVillage.com: The Women's Network enjoyed a significant increase in visitors, drawing almost 18 million visitors and jumping eleven spots to number 34 in the ranking.  Finally, Facebook.com re-entered the ranking at number 40 with 15.1 million visitors. 

Top 50 Ad Focus

October saw Advertising.com again reach 84 percent of the U.S. online population to retain the top ranking.  Burst Media cracked the top ten this month, reaching almost 94 million unique visitors.  YouTube.com and Real.com each gained in the ranking, reaching 14 percent and 9 percent of the population, respectively.  iVillage.com: The Women's Network, Facebook.com and WhitePages Network each re-entered the ranking in October achieving the 42^nd, 47^th, and 50^th spots, respectively.

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

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