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Following the revelation that more and more British surfers are sorting out their taxes online, the latest US Internet rankings from comScore Media Metrix also feature big gains for tax and politics sites.
Other major gains reflect the Super Bowl, Oscars ceremony and Valentine's Day (as already discussed on DRNO), giving 'an interesting mix of both the predictable and the unexpected' according to Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix.
The tax season pushed IRS.gov up 34 places to 19th position - by far the largest mover in the Top 50 US Internet Properties for February - and Intuit up 21 places to no.39, while John Kerry's web site has doubled its audience. For a complete Top 50 and other tables see www.comscore.com - abridged versions below.
The top ten sites in the Taxes category grew an average of 80% versus January. Category leader IRS.gov grew by 63%, helping to propel the Taxes category up 47% and the Government category up 6%. Nearly 20% of US Internet users visited the Taxes category in February, and visits are not short (or, presumably, overly sweet) - the average visitor spent just over 30 minutes viewing 52 pages.
In total, nearly 16 million Americans visited the Politics category as the field narrowed in the Democratic Nomination - up 14% on January, which was already up 78% on December. The general election is still 9 months away, but the Politics category has grown by 46% versus last year suggesting, says comScore, that the Internet is an increasingly mainstream source of political information for Americans.
Visits to candidate web sites reflected the overall fortunes of those concerned. JohnKerry.com jumped 103% to top one million visitors and become the leading candidate site, while JohnEdwards2004.com grew by 60% to 480,000 visitors in February. Both DeanforAmerica.com and Clark04.com declined by approximately 50% to 355,000 and 185,000 visitors, respectively.
Valentine's Day helped make the Jewelry, Luxury Goods & Accessories category the third largest gainer and the Flowers, Gifts & Greetings category the fourth largest gainer. Consumer spending on flowers and gifts during the first two weeks of February approached $140 million, an increase of 34% versus the corresponding weeks in 2003. Flowers were the most popular Valentine's Day gift among women surveyed by comScore early in February. Valentine's Day also boosted both AT&T Properties card sellers AmericanGreetings (both up 10 places, to 22 and 26 respectively).
The Super Bowl halftime show 'Janet Jackson incident' propelled DrudgeReport.com up 360 percent to nearly 6 million unique visitors, making the site the second-largest gaining property in February; meanwhile the Academy Awards contributed to a six percent jump in visitors to the TV category.
The recently introduced Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking, which rates Web entities that are supported in whole or in part by online advertising, saw the top four spots remain stable and Google jump two places to fifth. Google Web Search, a new entity created to track Google's Web search activity (and excluding other channels, such as News and Images) cracked the top ten in its first month.
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25 Properties February 2004 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated. Register (free) for Daily Research News Most viewed items in the last week...
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