Americans’ Resolutions Reflected Online With Taxes, Careers, Travel and Health Top of Mind

Comscore MMX Releases January Top 50 Web Rankings and Analysis

RESTON, VA, Feb. 13, 2006 – Comscore MMX today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories. The desire to kick off the New Year on the right foot drove traffic to sites in the Taxes, Career, Travel and Health categories.

“The beginning of the year typically marks a time of optimism as people recommit themselves to achieving their New Year’s resolutions, and many turn to the Internet for assistance in planning and executing these goals,” said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of Comscore MMX. “Rather than procrastinate until April, many Americans went online in January to file their taxes. Some decided it was time to shed those excess holiday pounds with assistance from online health resources, while others sought assistance with job changes or used the Internet to snag late-winter vacation deals.”

Tax Forms Send Early Filers to the Web in January

With W-2 forms in hand, many Americans turned to the Web to get an early jump on preparing and filing their 2005 tax returns. The Taxes category yielded the highest gains in this month’s ranking of the top gaining properties, drawing nearly 23 million visitors – an increase of 215 percent compared to December (see table 2). Visitation to the Taxes category has also seen year-over-year growth due to seasonality, increasing 13 percent from January 2005 levels.

The top gaining property in January was HRBlock.com with 4.3 million visitors, an increase of 171 percent compared to December (see table 1). IRS.gov saw traffic increase 186 percent to 11.5 million visitors, making this the sixth highest gaining property for the month. A 700-percent increase in visitors to TurboTax.com propelled Intuit up 198 percent, making it January’s fifth largest gaining property.

New Year – New Job

The start of the New Year often serves as a wake up call to people unhappy with their current job situation, and January 2005 was no different. Traffic to the Career Services and Development category jumped 26 percent to 50 million visitors. Category growth was fueled by three Career Services subcategories, which qualified for this month’s ranking of the top gaining properties. All subcategories benefited from significant television advertising: the Career-Job Search subcategory rose 42 percent, Career Resources increased 35 percent and traffic to the Career – Training and Education subcategory was up 18 percent.

Traffic at category leader CareerBuilder climbed 74 percent over the prior month to 21.2 million visitors yielding the largest gains in total visitors for the month. Monster.com saw a 38 percent increase to 14.5 million visitors, while Yahoo! Hot Jobs rose 19 percent to 8.5 million visitors.

Online Weight Loss Solutions Peak in January

The ever-popular New Year’s resolution to get in shape caused seasonal traffic spikes to sites in the Health category. eDiets, the top online dieting resource, more than doubled its traffic from the previous month, drawing 5.6 million visitors. Weight Watchers International also showed strong gains, attracting 4.7 million visitors, an increase of 90 percent compared to December. Increased visitation to the Health – Information subcategory (up 17 percent) secured a spot on the list of top gaining categories in January.

Consumers Look for Travel Deals to Beat Winter Doldrums

Cheap last-minute travel deals and planning spring travel destinations drew 73.9 million visitors to the Travel category in January. Two of January’s top ten gaining categories were Travel subcategories. Travel – Ground/Cruise ranked as the fourth fastest-growing category with nearly 10 million unique visitors, up 26 percent over December due to the numerous last-minute winter vacation deals offered. Heavy promotions of discounted cruises helped VacationsToGo.com draw 2.3 million visitors to the site, a 51 percent increase. Carnival Cruises attracted 2 million visitors with similar promotions, marking a 40 percent compared to December.Traffic to the Online Travel Agents subcategory gained 17 percent to 54 million visitors. Among the largest sites in this category, Travelocity saw the biggest gain, with traffic jumping 38 percent to 13 million visitors. Other top gaining sites include; Expedia.com (up 16 percent to 25.8 million visitors), Trip Network (up 22 percent to 21.5 million visitors), Orbitz.com (up 29 percent to 13.2 million visitors) and Priceline.com (up 22 percent to 9.7 million visitors).

Top 50 Properties

The top three properties remained unchanged from December 2005 to January 2006, with Yahoo! maintaining its position at number one (see table 3). MySpace.com continued its ascent into the top ten, attracting more than 35 million unique visitors, marking a 10 percent increase compared to December. Recent promotional efforts by Career Resource sites Monster Worldwide and CareerBuilder LLC helped both properties increase visitation this month. Monster Worldwide jumped eight spots to number 14, while CareerBuilder LLC entered the top 50 with a 27th place ranking. Travel sites also experienced a strong month as consumers took advantage of last-minute winter vacation deals. Expedia Inc. moved up to number 19, drawing just under 26 million unique visitors, while Trip Network, Inc. increased visitors by 22 percent to more than 21 million. Travelocity also entered the ranking, attracting more than 13 million unique visitors in January.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

January saw few changes in the Ad Focus Ranking. Advertising.com retained its number one spot for the 21st consecutive month, reaching 81 percent of all Americans online (see table 4). In the Career Resource subcategory, CareerBuilder Network jumped 18 spots to number 31, reaching more than 22 million Americans online, while Monster.com re-entered the ranking for the first time since August at number 48. CheapTickets.com climbed 12 spots to number 35, reaching 10 percent of the online population.

TABLE 1

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

TABLE 2

TABLE 3

TABLE 4

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in December. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the more than 170 million Internet users in January. The notation “**” indicates that the entity is an advertising network.

About Comscore MMX

Comscore MMX, 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 MMX continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its MMX 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 MMX 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.

Press
Bill Daddi
Daddi Brand Communications
646-370-1341
press@comscore.com