Star-Struck Observers Drawn to Space Shuttle Launch Online, Reports Comscore MMX

July Traffic to NASA.GOV Rises 60 Percent to Four Million Visitors

RESTON, VA, August 16, 2005 – Comscore MMX 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 MMX.

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

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

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in July 2005

TABLE 2

TABLE 3

TABLE 4

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 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 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.

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