Shifts in Ad Focus Rankings in March Provide Interesting Precursor to the Google-Doubleclick Merger

Comscore MMX Releases March Top 50 Web Rankings and Analysis;

Social Networking Sites Experience Interesting Gains in March; Spring Brings Americans to Home Improvement, Real Estate and Automotive Sites

RESTON, VA, April 26, 2007 – Comscore MMX 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 MMX. “As advertising networks cont inue 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

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in March 2007.

TABLE 2

TABLE 3

TABLE 4

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 MMX
Comscore MMX, a division of Comscore, Inc., 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 MMX reports are used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers. Comscore MMX syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) 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 analysts 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 more than 700 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

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