Comscore MMX Releases April Top 50 Web Rankings and Analysis

Sports Fever and Pet Food Recall Spur Traffic Increases in April

RESTON, VA, May 11, 2007 – Comscore MMX today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties and categories for April 2007. The month saw Internet users researching information about the pet food recall on the FDA and other related web sites, as well as heightened interest in Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NBA. Traffic to gay/lesbian and women’s community sites also saw significant increases in April, as did online personals. In addition, traffic to flowers, gifts & greetings sites jumped as consumers prepared for Mother’s Day and graduation.

“Events like the pet food recall, which affected millions across the nation, demonstrate how powerful a medium the Web has become for disseminating important information,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “Ten years ago, an event such as this could have been even more problematic if the millions of potentially affected consumers were not able to quickly and easily access information vital to their pets’ safety and well-being.”

Pet Food Recall Causes a Stir Online

As the top-gaining property in April, FDA.gov saw traffic surge 72 percent to 4.6 million visitors as numerous consumers sought information on the pet food recall. The Nestlé property also experienced significant gains in April, up 34 percent to 4.7 million visitors, driven largely by traffic to the Purina Web site.

Sports Fans Flock to Web in April

Several major events in the sports world caused traffic to spike at the major U.S. sports leagues’ official sites. The beginning of baseball season caused traffic to MLB.com to increase 57 percent to 12.8 million visitors in April, just one month after the beginning of spring training saw visitation rise 47 percent. Meanwhile, rabid football fans swarmed to NFL Internet Group sites for coverage of the 2007 NFL Draft, sending traffic up 38 percent to 8.8 million visitors. Finally, the NBA Internet Network experienced a 22-percent gain to 5.3 million visitors as the NBA playoffs kicked off in April.

Community Sites and Online Personals Gain Ground in April

With a 24-percent increase versus March, the gay/lesbian community sites ranked as the top-gaining category overall for the month, led by Planetout.com with 767,000 visitors (up 17 percent), Adam4Adam.com with 348,000 visitors, and BigMuscle.com with 238,000 visitors (up 92 percent). Women’s sites enjoyed a 7-percent increase in April, led by iVillage.com: The Women’s Network with 17 million visitors (up 9 percent), Glam Media with 12.2 million visitors (up 22 percent), and Everyday Health with 7.7 million visitors (up 3 percent).

Personals sites also gained in April (up 5 percent versus March), led by True.com with 4.9 million visitors (up 10 percent), Yahoo! Personals with 4.8 million visitors (up 14 percent), and Singlesnet.com with 3.9 million visitors (up 23 percent).

Americans Get a Jump Start in Remembering Mom and Grads in April

E-cards and flowers, gifts & greetings sites also saw significant increases in April, as Americans prepared for Mother’s Day and graduation. Leading the way in both categories were AmericanGreetings Property with 9.4 million visitors (up 24 percent) and Hallmark—the fifth biggest gainer overall—with 7.8 million visitors (up 40 percent). Invitation site Evite.com was a top e-card site with 6 million visitors (up 3 percent), while 1-800 Flowers.com represented the top retail flower site with 1.9 million visitors (up 49 percent).

Top 50 Properties

April’s Top 50 Properties saw Yahoo! Sites and Time Warner Network claim the top two positions once again. Google Sites, Fox Interactive Media, and Wikipedia Sites all gained one spot within the top ten to positions three, five, and seven, respectively. ARTISTdirect Network moved up nine positions to number 41, attracting 15 percent more unique visitors than last month. Shopzilla Sites gained eight spots to grab the number 32 position in April, while Facebook enjoyed a 10-percent increase to claim the 22nd spot in the rankings.

Top 50 Ad Focus

In April, Advertising.com extended its reach to 88 percent of Americans online to claim the number one position for the 36th consecutive month. ValueClick, Tribal Fusion, and Blue Lithium each gained one position within the top ten as well. Real Cities Network entered the ranking at number 36, reaching 16 percent of the U.S. online population, while PrecisionClick and Interclick both enjoyed four-spot increases to positions 17 and 30, respectively

TABLE 1

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

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Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in April. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the more than 178 million Internet users in April.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes an advertising network.

About Comscore MMX

Comscore MMX, 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 MMX continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its MMX 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 MMX 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 more than 700 clients, including 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 www.comscore.com.

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