2007-04-26 19:21:18 -

RESTON, Va., April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties and categories for March 2007. Among the significant changes seen during the month was a shift at the top of the Ad Focus ranking (seen in Table 4 below), with Yahoo! jumping one spot to claim the number two position, as Advertising.com remained in the lead. Unique to comScore, the Ad Focus ranking lists the top ad-focused sites and networks in order

of audience size.

"Shifts at the top of our Ad Focus ranking come at an interesting time with Google's recent announcement that it would be acquiring Doubleclick," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "As advertising networks continue to compete for online ad dollars, there is sure to be increased attention on which ones are reaching the widest audience."

Other March highlights include increased traffic to home improvement, real estate, and automotive resource sites, as well as Major League Baseball's official site, MLB.com, which saw an increase of 47 percent versus February to 8.2 million visitors. Those looking to both make and save money in March flocked to lotto and coupon sites, and Coca-Cola's "My Coke Rewards" promotion spurred a 40-percent increase to the Coca-Cola Company property, which saw nearly 5 million visitors in March. Finally, several key players in the social networking space experienced gains in March, as did teen community sites, including several featuring prom-related content.

Key Social Networking and Video Sites Post Gains

One of the top-gaining social networking sites in March was Facebook.com, which surged 25 percent -- and eight spots in the Top 50 ranking -- to nearly 21 million visitors. Other notable gainers in the social networking/ video-sharing space included Xanga.com, which grew 60 percent versus February to 6 million visitors, and Reunion.com, which grew 30 percent to 7.9 million visitors. Heavy Networks was the month's top gaining property, up 100 percent to 6.8 million visitors, driven in large part by a popular video spoof featuring Pamela Anderson as a cartoon superhero, while traffic to video site Metacafe surged 40 percent to 5.6 million visitors.

Prom Season Makes an Impact in Traffic to Teen Sites

Prom season had an impact on Community-Teen sites, which represented the fastest-gaining category in March, jumping 25 percent versus the previous month. Promspot.com increased 520 percent to 174,000 visitors, while Promadvice.com increased 168 percent to 117,000 visitors. Other leaders in the category included Lycos Angelfire with 7.1 million visitors (up 2 percent), Alloy with 5.6 million visitors (up 9 percent), and Neopets.com with 4.3 million visitors (up 15 percent).

Home Improvement, Real Estate and Automotive Sites Also Gain in March

The beginning of spring had Americans pondering major lifestyle improvements and purchases. Real estate sites experienced a 13-percent overall increase in March, led by Move Network with 9.3 million visitors (up 21 percent), MSN Real Estate with 4.1 million visitors (up 92 percent), and Homegain.com with 3.8 million visitors (up 15 percent). Americans were also focused on home improvement, as evidenced by the 9-percent gain to the Hobbies/Lifestyle-Home category, led by The Home Depot Inc. with 9.9 million visitors (up 5 percent), Move Network with 9.3 million visitors (up 21 percent) and Lowes.com with 7.7 million visitors (up 11 percent). In addition, Meredith Corporation was a top gainer this month (up 33 percent to 6.6 million visitors), driven largely by increases in traffic to the Better Homes and Gardens site, BHG.com.

Automotive resource sites also caught the attention of Americans in March. eBay Motors U.S. led the category with 15.3 million visitors (up 21 percent), followed by AutoTrader with 6.3 million visitors (up 4 percent) and KBB.com (Kelley Blue Book) with 6 million visitors (up 7 percent).

Win Some, Save Some

With the April tax filing deadline looming and Americans looking for ways to fatten their pockets, traffic to both Lotto/Sweepstakes and Coupon sites increased in March. The Web site for Publishers Clearing House, PCH.com, led the Lotto/Sweepstakes category with 6.8 million visitors, followed by ePrize.net with 4.4 million visitors (up 20 percent) and PrizeAmerica.com with 2.7 million visitors (up 166 percent). State lottery sites garnering the most visitation for the month were CALottery.com with 2.2 million visitors (up 22 percent), NYLottery.org with 1.6 million visitors, MegaMillions.com with 1.5 million visitors (up 104 percent), Powerball.com with 1.4 million visitors (up 71 percent), and FLALottery.com with 1.3 million visitors (up 3 percent).

Similarly, coupon sites achieved substantial gains in March, as the category grew 10 percent. CoolSavings.com led the category with 6.2 million visitors (up 20 percent), followed by Eversave.com with 5.9 million visitors (up 20 percent) and Coupons.com with 3.5 million visitors (up 31 percent).

Top 50 Properties

In the March Top 50 Properties Ranking, Yahoo! Sites remained at number one, while Microsoft Sites gained one spot, capturing the number three position. Wikipedia Sites also moved up a spot to number eight with more than 47 million unique visitors in March. Beyond the top ten, Idearc Media enjoyed a 43-percent increase in claiming the number 27 spot. Other top movers included Facebook.com, which gained eight spots to number 28, and ESPN, jumped 12 positions to number 33 with 19 million visitors, attracting heavy interest with its NCAA tournament coverage.

Top 50 Ad Focus

Within the Ad Focus Ranking, March saw Advertising.com reach 86 percent of the U.S. online population, while Yahoo! inched up a spot to claim the number two position. Nickelodeon Kids & Family and Yellowpages.com Network both moved into the ranking in March, reaching 12 percent and 10 percent of the U.S. online population, respectively. Finally, CPX Interactive jumped eleven positions to number 18 in the ranking, reaching more than 76 million Americans.

TABLE 1 Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* March 2007 vs. February 2007 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix Rank by Feb-07 Mar-07 Percentage Unique Property (000) (000) Change Visitors Total Internet Population 175,653 177,372 1% N/A Heavy Networks 3,391 6,766 100 136 XANGA.COM 3,754 6,021 60 158 MLB.COM* 5,581 8,203 47 106 Idearc Media 15,236 21,727 43 27 Metacafe 4,009 5,626 40 171 Coca-Cola Company 3,543 4,953 40 189 CITY-DATA.COM 2,714 3,716 37 248 Meredith Corporation 4,934 6,555 33 142 NetShelter Branded Network (NSBN) 3,973 5,232 32 181 REUNION.COM 6,083 7,891 30 115 *Ranking based on the top 250 properties in March 2007. TABLE 2 Top 10 Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors March 2007 vs. February 2007 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix Feb-07 Mar-07 Percentage (000) (000) Change Total Internet : Total Audience 175,653 177,372 1% Teens 22,912 28,741 25% Genealogy 8,529 10,178 19% Health Care 19,809 22,354 13% Real Estate 36,930 41,653 13% Lotto/Sweepstakes 26,349 29,349 11% Coupons 19,205 21,212 10% Car Rental 5,377 5,937 10% Resources 40,646 44,576 10% Home 36,647 39,928 9% Mall 27,356 29,640 8% TABLE 3 Top 50 Properties March 2007 Total U.S. -- Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix Unique Unique Rank Property Visitors Rank Property Visitors (000) (000) Total Internet Users 177,372 1 Yahoo! Sites 131,227 26 Bank of America 21,848 2 Time Warner Network 123,321 27 Idearc Media 21,727 3 Microsoft Sites 118,716 28 FACEBOOK.COM 20,896 4 Google Sites 118,492 29 CareerBuilder LLC 20,823 5 eBay 80,154 30 Gannett Sites 20,724 6 Fox Interactive Media 80,098 31 Disney Online 20,183 7 Amazon Sites 49,980 32 Travelport 19,925 8 Wikipedia Sites 47,011 33 ESPN 19,199 9 Ask Network 46,346 34 Real.com Network 18,988 10 New York Times Digital 41,464 35 Comcast Corporation 18,342 11 Viacom Digital 39,724 36 Yellowpages.com 12 Apple Computer, Inc. 37,736 Network 18,122 13 Weather Channel, The 36,189 37 Photobucket.com LLC 17,978 14 CNET Networks 30,984 38 WebMD Health 17,801 15 Gorilla Nation 28,852 39 CRAIGSLIST.ORG 17,793 16 AT&T, Inc. 27,349 40 Shopzilla.com Sites 17,532 17 Expedia Inc 27,039 41 WhitePages 17,212 18 Adobe Sites 26,842 42 E.W. Scripps 16,343 19 CBS Corporation 26,815 43 Cox Enterprises Inc. 16,187 20 Wal-Mart 25,679 44 NBC Universal 15,902 21 Target Corporation 25,123 45 Ticketmaster 15,810 22 United Online, Inc 24,277 46 iVillage.com: The 23 Monster Worldwide 23,515 Womens Network 15,536 24 Verizon Communications 47 Weatherbug Property 15,474 Corporation 23,251 48 Citysearch 15,000 25 Lycos, Inc. 22,387 49 USPS.COM 14,993 50 ARTISTdirect Network 14,677 TABLE 4 Ad Focus Ranking March 2007 Total U.S. -- Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix Unique Visitors Reach Rank Property (000) % Total Internet Users 177,372 100% 1 Advertising.com** 153,345 86% 2 Yahoo! 129,557 73% 3 ValueClick** 129,229 73% 4 Casale Media Network** 117,621 66% 5 Tribal Fusion** 116,027 65% 6 AOL Media 114,160 64% 7 Google 111,677 63% 8 Vendare NetBlue - TrafficMarketplace** 109,187 62% 9 Blue Lithium** 108,259 61% 10 MSN-Windows Live 100,382 57% 11 Specific Media** 97,537 55% 12 AOL 93,427 53% 13 DRIVEpm** 90,271 51% 14 24/7 Real Media** 89,745 51% 15 YAHOO.COM Home Page 87,379 49% 16 EuroClick** 86,506 49% 17 Tremor Media 76,709 43% 18 CPX Interactive** 76,581 43% 19 Burst Media** 72,191 41% 20 EBAY.COM 71,263 40% 21 PrecisionClick** 68,578 39% 22 MYSPACE.COM 66,298 37% 23 AdBrite** 66,050 37% 24 AdDynamix.com** 60,971 34% 25 Gorilla Nation Media 60,813 34% 26 ContextWeb** 54,415 31% 27 MSN.COM Home Page 49,899 28% 28 EBAY.COM Home Page 46,409 26% 29 Ask Network 46,346 26% 30 Vibrant Media** 44,823 25% 31 Business.com Network 41,513 23% 32 YOUTUBE.COM 36,494 21% 33 ABOUT.COM 36,040 20% 34 Interclick** 35,521 20% 35 WEATHER.COM 25,851 15% 36 Undertone Networks** 23,501 13% 37 CNN 22,482 13% 38 Nickelodeon Kids & Family 22,125 12% 39 Lycos Network 22,041 12% 40 SuperPages.com Network 21,702 12% 41 CareerBuilder Network 21,601 12% 42 FACEBOOK.COM 20,896 12% 43 The WebMD Health Network 20,429 12% 44 Disney Online 20,183 11% 45 IMDB.COM 19,594 11% 46 EXPEDIA.COM* 19,326 11% 47 ESPN 19,199 11% 48 Yellowpages.com Network 18,122 10% 49 PHOTOBUCKET.COM 17,282 10% 50 WhitePages Network 17,146 10% Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in March. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the more than 177 million Internet users in March. * 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 used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers -- while drawing upon comScore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About comScore

comScore, Inc. is a global leader in measuring the digital world. 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 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, Starcom USA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/.

Source: comScore, Inc.