RESTON, VA, March 9, 2006 - comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories.   While much of February's Web activity was seasonal, such as filing 2005 tax returns or shopping for Valentine's Day gifts, interest in the 2006 Winter Olympics also drove significant activity.

 

"Although Valentine's Day drove up traffic in several categories versus the previous month, those categories actually experienced declines when compared to February of the prior year." said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. "Conversely, heavy interest in the 2006 Winter Olympics propelled the Sports category to a 16 percent traffic gain and 32 percent increase in engagement over February 2005.  It appears that the Olympics took away mindshare from Valentine's Day during the middle part of the month, possibly resulting in softer sales for Valentine's Day retailers."

 

Consumers Love the Web as a Valentine's Day Resource - But Picture Not as Rosy as Last Year

As might be expected in February, Internet traffic increased in the Flowers/Greetings/Gifts, e-Cards and Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories categories compared to the previous month.  Flowers/Gifts/Greetings saw the second largest traffic increase among all categories for the month, as it jumped 25 percent to 36.8 million visitors.  E-Cards ranked as the fourth highest gaining category increasing 10 percent to 38.3 million visitors, while Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories ranked fifth increasing 8 percent to 14.6 million visitors.

 

Among the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category, each of the major retailers saw notable traffic gains.  American Greetings (up 33 percent to 11.6 million visitors) and Hallmark (up 34 percent to 8.9 million visitors) led the way for sites specializing in greetings, while FTD.com (up 156 percent to 4.9 million visitors) and 1-800-FLOWERS.com (up 77 percent to 3.1 million visitors) attracted the most visitors among online florists.  RedEnvelope.com's 43 percent growth to 1.7 million visitors and Tiffany & Co.'s 52 percent growth to 1.3 million visitors helped propel the Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories category during February.

 

Compared to February of last year, however, the numbers are not quite as favorable.  The Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category experienced the most significant declines from last year losing 10 percent of its traffic, while e-Cards (down 7 percent) and Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories (down 4 percent) also saw drop-offs.

 

Olympics Coverage Draws Heavy Traffic

The 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy drew millions of people to the Web in February, propelling the Sports category onto the list of top 10 gaining categories.  U.S. Olympic team sites drew the most Olympic-related traffic with 2.6 million visitors, which marked a 34 percent increase from the prior month.  The biggest percentage gainer among Olympic sites was Torino2006.org, which saw a 445 percent jump in visitation from January, reaching 1.5 million visitors.  Several other sports sites were buoyed by Olympics coverage, including ESPN (up 7 percent to 17.8 million visitors), Yahoo! Sports (up 18 percent to 13 million visitors), and AOL Sports (up 44 percent to 11.7 million visitors). Interest from NASCAR fans geared up online in February with the Daytona 500, propelling the site onto the list of top 10 gaining properties with 4.7 million visitors (up 90 percent).

 

Early Tax Filing Equals Early Refunds

Visitation to Tax sites rose for the second consecutive month, as increasing numbers of people are looking to file their tax returns.  Following a dramatic 215 percent traffic increase from December to January, visitation to the Taxes category grew another 28 percent in February to 29.7 million visitors.

 

With its wealth of tax information resources and links to online filing sites, IRS.gov saw traffic increase 38 percent to 15.9 million visitors to rank as the top site in the category. Other tax sites primarily dedicated to online filing also saw significant gains. TurboTax.com, drew 7.8 million visitors in February (up 42 percent), while TaxACTOnline.com attracted 3.7 million visitors (up 39 percent) and TaxACT.com drew 3.5 million visitors (up 57 percent).  Compared to February 2005, TurboTax gained 13 percent, TaxACT.com grew 7 percent, and TaxACTOnline.com drew 42 percent more traffic.  These strong gains indicate that more Americans are, in fact, filing their taxes online, rather than just retrieving tax-related information.

 

Political Sites Shoot Up in February Rankings

An abundance of political stories surfaced in February, driving interested parties to the political sites for extended coverage and opinions.  Most notably, Vice President Dick Cheney's now infamous hunting mishap piqued interest among the mainstream, increasing traffic to the Politics category by 18 percent to 6.4 million visitors, making the Politics the third fastest-growing category for the month.  February's traffic gains marked the biggest increase in the category since Hurricane Katrina coverage drove people to the Web in September 2005.  Among the top gaining sites in the Politics category for the month were AnnCoulter.org, which increased 273 percent to 512,000 visitors, and RealClearPolitics.com, which increased 167 percent to 382,000 visitors.

 

Top 50 Properties

In February, the Top 50 Properties saw Ask Jeeves and Verizon Communications Corporation each move up one spot, attracting just over 43 million and 32 million unique visitors, respectively.  Both The Weather Channel and Wikipedia sites continued to climb the rankings, with each drawing 7 percent more unique visitors than in January.   Finally, as more people prepared their taxes, IRS.GOV entered the ranking at number 36 with just under 16 million unique visitors.

 

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

February saw few large shifts in the Ad Focus Ranking.  Advertising.com remained number one for the 22^nd consecutive month, reaching 80 percent of all Americans online.  Google and Casale Media Network both inched up one spot, with each network now reaching 55 percent of the online U.S. population.  Beyond the top ten, Sports entities ESPN and Fox Sports on MSN jumped to numbers 31 and 36, respectively, while Mamma Media Solutions increased 5 spots to number 33, reaching nearly 17 million Americans online.

 

TABLE 1

Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* February 2006 vs. January 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
Property	Jan-06 (000)	Feb-06 (000)	Percentage Change	Rank by  Unique Visitors
Total Internet Population	170,797	166,966	-2	N/A
FTD.com	1,935	4,956	156	156
Powerball.com	1,314	3,271	149	228
Nascar.com	2,470	4,685	90	167
1-800-FLOWERS	1,753	3,095	77	245
TaxAct.com	2,245	3,528	57	217
YouTube.com	2,741	4,230	54	186
123Greetings.com	3,061	4,441	45	176
TaxActOnline.com	2,654	3,692	39	210
IRS.gov	11,511	15,919	38	36
The Mozilla Organization	3,465	4,788	38	162

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

 

TABLE 2

Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors February 2006 vs. January 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Jan-06 (000)	Feb-06 (000)	Percentage Change
Total Internet Population	170,797	166,966	-2
Taxes	23,244	29,725	28
Flowers/Gifts/Greetings	29,393	36,789	25
Politics	5,469	6,428	18
e-cards	34,722	38,307	10
Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories	13,508	14,607	8
Toys	16,349	17,105	5
Sports	59,549	61,707	4
Real Estate	34,785	36,019	4
Weather	51,581	52,658	2
Retail - Food	11,254	11,427	2

 

TABLE 3

Top 50 Properties February 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	166,966
1	Yahoo! Sites	120,004		26	Target Corporation	19,876
2	MSN-Microsoft Sites	110,783		27	CareerBuilder LLC	19,705
3	Time Warner Network	110,423		28	Wikipedia Sites	19,638
4	Google Sites	94,627		29	CBS Corporation	18,776
5	eBay	66,613		30	Gannett Sites	18,727
6	Ask Jeeves	43,030		31	Shopzilla.com Sites	18,652
7	Amazon Sites	42,660		32	ESPN	17,806
8	MYSPACE.COM	37,349		33	Real.com Network	17,208
9	New York Times Digital	34,841		34	Comcast Corporation	16,835
10	Verizon Communications Corporation	32,058		35	E.W. Scripps	16,646
11	Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG)	31,662		36	IRS.GOV	15,919
12	Weather Channel, The	27,887		37	Trip Network Inc.	15,897
13	CNET Networks	26,492		38	Weatherbug Property	15,268
14	Expedia Inc	25,392		39	Citysearch	15,073
15	Viacom Online	25,250		40	Cox Enterprises Inc.	14,463
16	United Online, Inc	24,816		41	News Corp. Online	13,886
17	Apple Computer, Inc.	24,277		42	Earthlink	13,734
18	Monster Worldwide	24,050		43	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	13,439
19	Lycos, Inc.	23,443		44	WebMD Health	13,093
20	AT&T, Inc.	22,355		45	Infospace Network	13,062
21	Vendare Media	22,017		46	UPS Sites	12,940
22	Adobe Sites	21,895		47	WhitePages	12,910
23	Bank of America	21,047		48	Ticketmaster	12,676
24	Wal-Mart	20,999		49	Dell	12,471
25	Gorilla Nation Media	20,770		50	OVERSTOCK.COM	12,365

 

 

TABLE 4

Ad Focus Ranking  February 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	166,966	100%
1	Advertising.com**	133,190	80%		26	Business.com Network	23,962	14%
2	Yahoo!	117,278	70%		27	Lycos Network	23,386	14%
3	Valueclick Media/Fastclick**	108,831	65%		28	Vendare Media	22,017	13%
4	AOL Media Network	103,536	62%		29	CareerBuilder Network	20,980	13%
5	Google	92,507	55%		30	CNN	20,546	12%
6	MSN	91,749	55%		31	ESPN	17,806	11%
7	Casale Media Network**	88,998	53%		32	Disney Online	17,413	10%
8	Tribal Fusion**	86,425	52%		33	Mamma Media Solutions**	16,819	10%
9	Vendare Media - TrafficMarketplace**	84,199	50%		34	AdDynamix.com**	16,598	10%
10	AOL	81,413	49%		35	WebMD Health Network	16,077	10%
11	YAHOO.COM Home Page	73,918	44%		36	FOX Sports on MSN	15,852	9%
12	24/7 Real Media**	73,527	44%		37	SuperPages Network	15,629	9%
13	BURST! Media**	65,166	39%		38	IMDB.COM	15,092	9%
14	EBAY.COM	57,420	34%		39	WeatherBug	15,010	9%
15	Blue Lithium**	55,149	33%		40	CITYSEARCH.COM*	14,935	9%
16	Gorilla Nation Media Network	53,180	32%		41	Travelocity All	14,285	9%
17	MSN.COM Home Page	51,774	31%		42	CLASSMATES.COM	13,754	8%
18	Ask Jeeves	43,030	26%		43	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	13,439	8%
19	MYSPACE.COM	37,349	22%		44	BIZRATE.COM	12,931	8%
20	EBAY.COM Home Page	33,600	20%		45	WhitePages Network	12,855	8%
21	Vibrant Media**	33,210	20%		46	CNET	12,418	7%
22	ABOUT.COM	30,104	18%		47	MONSTER.COM*	12,300	7%
23	MSNBC	26,484	16%		48	ORBITZ.COM	12,169	7%
24	WEATHER.COM	25,752	15%		49	WHITEPAGES.COM	11,965	7%
25	Expedia Inc	25,392	15%		50	TICKETMASTER.COM	11,933	7%

 

 

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in February.  For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 70 percent of the more than 166 million Internet users in February.  The notation "**" indicates that the entity is 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 Orbitz.  For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

 

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