RESTON, VA, February 15, 2007 – comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties and categories for January 2007.  In keeping with annual trends, January saw significant increases in visitation to tax, travel, careers and real estate sites.  Heightened interest in tax software and Microsoft’s Vista operating system boosted traffic to the Computer Software category, while mounting speculation about 2008 Presidential candidates drove traffic to politically-oriented sites.  

“As we’ve witnessed on an annual basis, consumers turned to the Web at the beginning of the year in a very utilitarian fashion, with an eye toward planning,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.  “Traffic to Tax sites continued to grow versus December, and Travel sites also saw increases as Americans explored ways to escape the winter doldrums.  Politics also captured consumers’ attention, as politicians turned to the Web as their primary vehicle to announce their candidacies for the first time.  In addition, Americans took keen interest in potential career changes and housing moves in January.”   

Americans Get a Head Start on Taxes

January marked the official start of the annual tax season in the U.S., and Americans hit the Web in force in preparation of filing their 2006 tax returns, driving the Tax category to the top-gaining category for the month, virtually tripling its December traffic totals.  Led by IRS.gov, which had 13.3 million visitors (a 205-percent increase versus December to make it the top gaining property for the month), the category saw a 199-percent increase to 22.4 million visitors.

Computer Software Category Continues Upward Climb

Even as other retail-oriented categories returned to previous visitation levels after the holiday season, the Computer Software category bucked the trend with a 20-percent surge in January.  Intuit, developer of finance software packages such as TurboTax, Quicken, and QuickBooks, grew 189-percent with 11.5 million unique visitors to make it the second-largest gaining site overall.  The highly anticipated rollout of Microsoft Vista also drove category traffic, with sites such as Buy.com, Symantec Store, PCSecurityShield.com, Microsoft Product Info, and Trendmicro.com all finishing within the category’s top ten.

Americans Looking to Escape Winter Doldrums

Americans looking to escape frigid conditions around the country and take advantage of post-holiday vacation deals swarmed to travel-related sites in January. The Hotels/Resorts category experienced a 29-percent boost in visitation, led by Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Online with 6 million visitors (a 44-percent increase versus December) and Hotels.com with 5.2 million visitors (up 52 percent).  Visitation to Travelocity grew 55 percent to 11.8 million visitors, making it the fourth-biggest gainer in January. Expedia led the Online Travel Agents category with 25.4 million visitors, up 31 percent versus December.

New Year’s Resolution: Get a New Job

Many Americans resolved to reassess their career situations, as 31 percent of American Internet users visited a Career Services site in January.  Leading the category was CareerBuilder LLC with 21.1 million visitors (up 51 percent), followed by Monster with 15.7 million visitors (up 23 percent), and Yahoo! HotJobs with 10.7 million visitors (up 68 percent).  Training and Education sites increased 26 percent to 9.9 million visitors in January, led by the College Board Property with 2.5 million visitors (up 44 percent) and Fastweb with 1.7 million visitors (up 17 percent). 

Real Estate Category Shows Seasonal Growth

January also represented a month of real estate exploration on the Web, as visitation to the category increased 28 percent versus December, reflecting seasonal increases after the New Year.  Move Network led the category with 8.5 million visitors, up 44 percent versus December, followed by Yahoo! Real Estate, which increased 63 percent to 4 million visitors, and Homegain.com, which increased 50 percent to 3.9 million visitors.

Politics Captured Americans’ Attention as 2008 Presidential Campaigns Kick Into Gear

Mounting speculation surrounding key players in the 2008 presidential elections fueled a 25-percent increase to political sites in January.  Leading the category was Capitol Advantage, which grew 74 percent to 1.1 million visitors, followed by WorldNetDaily (up 54 percent to 478,000 visitors), and Moveon.org (up 23 percent to 430,000 visitors).  In addition, strong media coverage of the 2008 presidential hopefuls drove traffic to their respective campaign Web sites.  Specifically, the presumptive frontrunners for the democratic presidential nomination saw their official campaign sites finish among the category’s top 15, led by Hillary Clinton with 313,000 unique visitors, followed by Barack Obama (297,000 unique visitors), and John Edwards (202,000 unique visitors).

Top 50 Properties

January saw the top eight properties remain unchanged from December, with Yahoo! Sites capturing the number one position, drawing just over 129 million unique visitors (see Table 3).  Wikipedia Sites jumped four spots to enter the top ten at number nine, attracting nearly 43 million unique visitors.  The New York Times Digital gained two spots to claim the number ten spot with 40.1 million unique visitors.  Other big movers included AT&T, Inc., which grabbed the number 15 position (rising from number 22 in December) and Expedia Inc. which jumped 13 spots to number 18 and increased unique visitors by more than 30 percent. 

Top 50 Ad Focus

In January, Advertising.com retained the number one position for the 33rd consecutive month, reaching 85 percent of the U.S. online population. Casale Media Network and MSN-Windows Live each gained one position to claim the number five and nine spots, respectively.  Also within the top ten, Google moved up two positions to number seven, reaching 61 percent of Americans online.  Additionally, Euroclick jumped five spots to number 17, reaching 43 percent of the U.S. online population, while ContextWeb enjoyed an increase of four spots up to number 24, reaching 30 percent.

TABLE 1

Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* January 2007 vs. December 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
Property	Dec-06 (000)	Jan-07 (000)	Percentage Change	Rank by  Unique Visitors
Total Internet Population	174,199	175,559	1%	N/A
IRS.GOV	4,372	13,333	205	208
Intuit	3,969	11,464	189	227
ED.GOV	3,790	7,105	87	236
Travelocity	7,600	11,799	55	114
CareerBuilder LLC	13,919	21,077	51	55
Move Network	5,916	8,527	44	154
Classified Ventures	7,516	10,331	37	116
Dominion Enterprises	5,127	6,940	35	178
Belo	3,598	4,814	34	249
CA.GOV	5,128	6,849	34	177

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

 

TABLE 2

Top 10 Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors January 2007 vs. December 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Dec-06 (000)	Jan-07 (000)	Percentage Change
Total Internet : Total Audience	174,199	175,559	1%
Taxes	7,505	22,420	199
Hotels/Resorts	25,248	32,659	29
Real Estate	31,226	39,845	28
Training and Education	7,865	9,888	26
Politics	6,192	7,733	25
Job Search	11,796	14,534	23
Career Services and Development	44,715	54,131	21
Gay/Lesbian	1,843	2,231	21
Computer Software	25,260	30,216	20
Online Travel Agents	40,699	47,841	18

 

 

TABLE 3

Top 50 Properties January 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	175,559
1	Yahoo! Sites	129,153		26	Verizon Communications Corporation	22,648
2	Time Warner Network	117,229		27	CBS Corporation	22,587
3	Microsoft Sites	114,936		28	CareerBuilder LLC	21,077
4	Google Sites	113,434		29	Shopzilla.com Sites	19,801
5	eBay	80,681		30	Travelport	19,720
6	Fox Interactive Media	74,831		31	FACEBOOK.COM	18,961
7	Amazon Sites	50,886		32	Gannett Sites	18,671
8	Ask Network	49,103		33	Real.com Network	18,532
9	Wikipedia Sites	42,880		34	Comcast Corporation	17,698
10	New York Times Digital	40,137		35	Photobucket.com LLC	17,620
11	Apple Computer, Inc.	38,634		36	E.W. Scripps	17,579
12	Viacom Digital	37,303		37	WebMD Health	17,076
13	Weather Channel, The	35,433		38	Idearc Media	16,884
14	CNET Networks	30,764		39	WhitePages	16,636
15	AT&T, Inc.	28,627		40	Cox Enterprises Inc.	16,245
16	Wal-Mart	27,031		41	ESPN	16,209
17	Adobe Sites	26,267		42	Yellowpages.com Network	16,148
18	Expedia Inc	25,377		43	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,529
19	Disney Online	25,005		44	CRAIGSLIST.ORG	15,251
20	Monster Worldwide	24,976		45	NFL Internet Group	15,089
21	United Online, Inc	24,461		46	Best Buy Sites	15,039
22	Lycos, Inc.	24,178		47	NBC Universal	14,959
23	Target Corporation	24,015		48	UPS Sites	14,787
24	Gorilla Nation	23,708		49	Weatherbug Property	14,696
25	Bank of America	23,130		50	JPMorgan Chase Property	14,636

 

 

TABLE 4

Ad Focus Ranking January 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	175,559	100%
1	Advertising.com**	148,439	85%		26	Ask Network	49,103	28%
2	ValueClick**	129,665	74%		27	EBAY.COM Home Page	45,126	26%
3	Yahoo!	127,460	73%		28	CPX Interactive**	43,207	25%
4	Tribal Fusion**	115,944	66%		29	Vibrant Media**	41,377	24%
5	Casale Media Network**	109,865	63%		30	ABOUT.COM	35,050	20%
6	AOL Media Network	108,466	62%		31	Interclick**	34,732	20%
7	Google	107,105	61%		32	YOUTUBE.COM	30,358	17%
8	Vendare NetBlue - TrafficMarketplace**	101,076	58%		33	Business.com Network	26,656	15%
9	MSN-Windows Live	97,449	56%		34	WEATHER.COM	25,636	15%
10	Blue Lithium**	94,858	54%		35	Disney Online	25,005	14%
11	24/7 Real Media**	90,469	52%		36	Lycos Network	24,026	14%
12	AOL	88,738	51%		37	Undertone Networks**	22,286	13%
13	DRIVEpm**	88,157	50%		38	CareerBuilder Network	21,954	13%
14	YAHOO.COM Home Page	86,976	50%		39	IMDB.COM	21,272	12%
15	Burst Media**	77,036	44%		40	CNN	21,246	12%
16	Tremor Media	75,294	43%		41	The WebMD Health Network	20,196	12%
17	EuroClick**	75,134	43%		42	FACEBOOK.COM	18,961	11%
18	EBAY.COM	72,817	41%		43	EXPEDIA.COM*	17,822	10%
19	PrecisionClick**	70,131	40%		44	SuperPages	16,884	10%
20	AdBrite**	66,942	38%		45	PHOTOBUCKET.COM	16,772	10%
21	MYSPACE.COM	61,524	35%		46	WhitePages Network	16,568	9%
22	AdDynamix.com**	59,420	34%		47	ESPN	16,209	9%
23	Gorilla Nation Media	58,955	34%		48	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,529	9%
24	ContextWeb**	52,914	30%		49	Travelocity All	15,457	9%
25	MSN.COM Home Page	50,112	29%		50	WHITEPAGES.COM	15,457	9%

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in January.  For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the more than 175 million Internet users in January. 

* 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 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.

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