RESTON, VA, August 16, 2005 - comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at the top online properties and categories.  In July, consumers were drawn to the Web by historic events such as the Discovery Space Shuttle launch and Lance Armstrong's record-setting ride to a seventh Tour de France victory. 

 

"Through the integration of video and other rich media into Web content, audiences can increasingly interact with world events, rather than just sitting back and watching," noted Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. 

 

NASA Shuttle Launch Captivates Web Audience

With the nation anticipating the first shuttle mission since the February 2003 Columbia disaster, NASA.GOV shared the title as the Internet's highest-gaining property in July 2005 as traffic increased 60 percent.  More than 4 million people visited NASA.GOV in July, as the site featured special "Return To Flight" content with video, images and reports spanning topics such as crew biographies, shuttle design and assembly, and the entire flight process including the July 26 launch of Discovery. 

Superstars and Cars Add To Hot Sites' Sizzle

Activity at Nike.com was powered uphill by Lance Armstong's unprecedented seventh-consecutive Tour de France title.  The athletic shoe and apparel company, a long-time Armstrong sponsor, saw a 26-percent gain to 3.5 million unique visitors on strong interest in a page titled "Wear Yellow" that features video clips telling Armstrong's story of overcoming cancer to dominate the cycling world. 

 

Ford Motor Company was among the top ten gaining properties in July, rising 29 percent to 8.5 million visitors. The nation's second-largest automaker drew online auto shoppers thanks to its "Ford Family Plan" promotion that featured employee discount pricing in response to similar offers from rivals General Motors and DaimlerChrysler. 

 

Apple's iTunes Continues To Evolve

The popularity of Apple's iPod continues to drive music buffs to iTunes to download and manage their playlists.  On June 28, a new version of the iTunes application was launched that allowed users to download Podcasts, sparking interest from loyal Podcasters and curious "iPodders" alike.  iTunes.com also held its "500 Millionth Song" Contest, awarding the person who downloaded the site's 500 millionth song a grand prize package including 10 iPods and concert tickets.  In all, 5.4 million people visited iTunes in July, up 13 percent from June 2005.  The growth of iTunes also helped push the Retail - Music category up 7 percent to 30.1 million visitors.

 

Travelers Look To Web As Summer Winds Up

With more Americans taking vacations in July, traffic to major travel-related categories such as Maps and Airlines increased.  Navigation giants Mapquest and Yahoo! Maps continued to grow in July, each rising 4 percent with MapQuest topping the list at 47.4 million visitors.  Quickly entering the scene is Google Maps, which saw 11.3 million visitors in July, driven by heavy interest in its Google Earth map application and Google Moon, a spoof of its own map site that shows where Apollo landings have taken place on the moon - and holds a humorous surprise for visitors that zoom in too close to the lunar surface.

 

Summer travel helped the Travel - Airlines category draw 31.9 million visitors in July, a total category increase of seven percent from June.  Growth was driven by traffic surges at the category's top two sites, Southwest.com (10.5 million unique visitors) and Delta Airlines (6.8 million unique visitors).  Southwest.com gained 12 percent on a variety of low fare promotions, while Delta's 10-percent increase in site traffic paralleled the company's later report that it saw 6.1 percent more system traffic in July. 

 

Top 50 Properties

July saw the Top 10 properties remain in the same order as in June. Notable gains in unique visitors were posted by Amazon Sites (5 percent) and Viacom Online (17 percent).

 

Boosted by the summer vacation appeal of its "Best Of" features and local content, IAC/InterActiveCorp unit Citysearch cracked the Top 50 properties at number 41, attracting 4.1 million more visitors in July than in June. MySpace.com continued its strong growth, gaining eight spots in July to land at number 22.

 

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

In July, for the 15th consecutive month, Advertising.com finished atop the Ad Focus Ranking by reaching 80 percent of all Americans online as unique visitors grew 3 percent versus June.  Yahoo! reached 69 percent of the U.S. online audience to finish at number two, and Fastclick reached 69 percent to finish at number three.  AOL Media Network, after debuting in June, was number four, reaching 67 percent of all online Americans.

 

AdDynamix broke into the Top 50 in the Ad Focus Ranking in July, reaching 33 million Americans and finishing at number 19.

 

 

 

 

TABLE 1

 

Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* July 2005 vs. June 2005 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
Property	June-05 (000)	July-05 (000)	Percentage Change	Rank by  Unique Visitors
Total Internet Population	166,625	167,444	0%	N/A
Classified Ventures	6,962	11,166	60%	66
NASA.GOV	2,533	4,061	60%	198
CitySearch	10,392	14,509	40%	41
IFILM.COM	2,737	3,756	37%	213
NFL Internet Group	5,281	7,224	37%	107
Department of Commerce	8,647	11,628	34%	62
Wikipedia Sites	7,359	9,865	32%	80
Ford Motor Company	6,620	8,540	29%	92
Nike	2,732	3,452	26%	239
WUNDERGROUND.COM	2,933	3,622	23%	225

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in July 2005

  TABLE 2

 

Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors July 2005 vs. June 2005 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
	June-05 (000)	July-05 (000)	Percentage Change
Total Internet Population	166,625	167,444	0%
Health - Pharmacy	12,557	14,298	14%
Community - Teens	21,260	24,060	13%
Entertainment - Radio	37,257	42,236	13%
Gambling - Online Gambling	26,814	30,040	12%
Business/Finance - Taxes	6,359	7,096	12%
Retail - Consumer Goods	21,995	23,593	7%
Directories/Resources - Maps	59,399	63,510	7%
Retail - Music	28,177	30,056	7%
Retail - Comparison Shopping	48,882	52,110	7%
Travel - Airlines	29,975	31,932	7%

 

TABLE 3

 

Top 50 Properties July 2005 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	167,444
1	Time Warner Network	119,144		26	Bank of America	19,705
2	Yahoo! Sites	119,032		27	Gannett Sites	19,440
3	MSN-Microsoft Sites	112,475		28	Classmates.com Sites	19,267
4	Google Sites	82,341		29	Weatherbug Property	19,019
5	eBay	61,715		30	United Online, Inc	18,116
6	Amazon Sites	41,982		31	Infospace Network	17,534
7	Ask Jeeves	39,375		32	Apple Computer, Inc.	17,438
8	Viacom Online	37,785		33	OVERSTOCK.COM	17,177
9	Vendare Media	32,903		34	Comcast Corporation	16,438
10	Verizon Communications Corporation	32,094		35	Shopzilla.com Sites	16,386
11	CNET Networks	30,691		36	ORBITZ.COM	16,134
12	Weather Channel, The	30,135		37	E.W. Scripps	15,650
13	Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG)	29,620		38	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,526
14	New York Times Digital	29,316		39	ESPN	14,890
15	Monster Worldwide	27,483		40	Cox Enterprises Inc.	14,536
16	Lycos, Inc.	26,415		41	Citysearch	14,509
17	Expedia Travel	26,141		42	Travelocity	14,420
18	Wal-Mart	22,641		43	CareerBuilder LLC	14,419
19	Real.com Network	22,397		44	Dell	14,239
20	Shopping.com Sites	22,391		45	Earthlink	14,083
21	Trip Network Inc.	21,753		46	Ticketmaster	14,050
22	MYSPACE.COM	21,215		47	Sears Sites	13,758
23	Gorilla Nation Media	20,702		48	Capital One	13,363
24	Target Corporation	20,537		49	Sony Online	13,297
25	AT&T Properties	19,881		50	JPMorgan Chase Property	13,294

 

 

TABLE 4

 

Ad Focus Ranking July 2005 Unique Visitors (000) Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Reach %		Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Reach %
	Total Internet Users	167,444	100%
1	Advertising.com**	134,241	80%		26	Expedia Travel	26,141	16%
2	Yahoo!	116,330	69%		27	ABOUT.COM	24,368	15%
3	Fastclick**	115,679	69%		28	CNN	22,751	14%
4	AOL Media Network	112,394	67%		29	AOL Business Network	22,703	14%
5	MSN	98,746	59%		30	MYSPACE.COM	21,215	13%
6	AOL	87,446	52%		31	CLASSMATES.COM	19,267	12%
7	Vendare Media - TrafficMarketplace**	87,181	52%		32	Disney Online	18,821	11%
8	GOOGLE.COM*	79,555	48%		33	WeatherBug	18,733	11%
9	Casale Media Network**	77,314	46%		34	SuperPages Network	17,769	11%
10	YAHOO.COM Home Page	75,945	45%		35	Travelocity All	17,285	10%
11	Tribal Fusion**	73,905	44%		36	CareerBuilder Network	16,713	10%
12	ValueClick Media**	61,691	37%		37	REAL.COM*	16,388	10%
13	EBAY.COM	57,695	34%		38	ORBITZ.COM	16,134	10%
14	24/7 Real Media**	56,343	34%		39	MaxOnline**	15,962	10%
15	BURST! Media**	56,290	34%		40	COOLSAVINGS.COM Total Activity	15,948	10%
16	MSN.COM Home Page	52,765	32%		41	CHEAPTICKETS.COM	15,882	9%
17	Ask Jeeves	39,375	24%		42	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,526	9%
18	EBAY.COM Home Page	38,143	23%		43	ESPN	14,890	9%
19	AdDynamix.com**	32,999	20%		44	CNET	14,730	9%
20	Vendare Media	32,903	20%		45	CITYSEARCH.COM*	14,696	9%
21	Business.com Network	31,272	19%		46	WebMD Health Network	13,749	8%
22	WEATHER.COM	28,316	17%		47	Netscape	13,720	8%
23	Gorilla Nation Media Network	27,481	16%		48	MONSTER.COM*	13,389	8%
24	MSNBC	27,380	16%		49	WhitePages Network	13,087	8%
25	Lycos Network	26,320	16%		50	IMDB.COM	13,072	8%

 

 

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that views a particular entity at least once in July.  For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 69 percent of the over 167 million Internet users in July.  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 patent-pending 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,  Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Nestlé, Bank of America, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, GlaxoSmithKline and Orbitz.  For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

 

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