April Showers Boost National Geographic

comScore Media Metrix has announced the Top 50 US Internet Properties for the month of April 2004, based on an active online population across home, work and university PCs of 155.1 million people. The biggest gaining web property was NationalGeographic.com, with Americans keen to read up on near-earth meteors among other features.

The top 5 properties held their places from March, while News Corp. Online and AmericanGreetings Property showed the biggest rises.

With a gain of more than 3 million visitors, News Corp. Online jumped 10 spots to number 27, largely as a result of increased traffic to Fox News and American Idol sites. Easter and early Mother's Day cards helped boost AmericanGreetings Property 8 spots to number 30: E-Cards was generally the top gaining category with nearly 40 million visitors in April, a 16% increase, and Hallmark.com the biggest gaining site in the category, up c.40%.

The Religion category saw an 11-percent increase in visits, with big gains for LDS.org (up 82%), TheInterviewWithGod.com (34%) and GospelCom.net (31%). Flowers, Gifts & Greetings also grew 11 percent with nearly every major site in the category experiencing an increase in visitors in April.

The comparison shopping category saw a 9% increase to nearly 37 million visitors in April, pushed by Google's decision to add its Froogle service to the Google home page - Froogle's visits were up 170%, putting it in the top 5 for the category.

According to Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix, April 'also saw the Web show its utility as a creative promotional vehicle, with a number of campaigns such as Burger King's 'Subservient Chicken' and HotJobs' 'Career Makeover,' drawing millions of visitors'. The latter promotion boosted the site by 40%, and the former drew nearly 1.5 million visitors to SubservientChicken.com in April, while Comedy Central gained 36% after running the '100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time'.

In addition to the articles on near-earth meteors, NationalGeographic.com's views on Daylight Savings Time and this year's arrival of cicadas helped pull in an audience of 3.6 million unique visitors - up 86% - making it the top gaining Web property in April. Also in the top ten, MLB.com and NFL Internet Group grew 45 and 37% respectively, with the beginning of the Major League Baseball season and the NFL Draft.

In the ad focus ranking, AOL climbed 4 places to assume the number 4 position, while Tribal Fusion jumped 3 places and over 2.6 million visitors to claim the number 11 ranking.

Top 50 Properties, April 2004 Unique Visitors (000)
Rank - Property	Unique Visitors(000)
Total Internet Users	155,130
1 Yahoo! Sites	113,190
2 Time Warner Network	111,750
3 MSN-Microsoft Sites	110,121
4 Google Sites	65,996
5 eBay	60,106
6 Amazon Sites	39,083
7 Terra Lycos	38,390
8 About/Primedia	38,263
9 Excite Network	29,047
10 Viacom Online	28,020
11 Verizon Communications Corp.	24,135
12 CNET Networks	24,041
13 The Weather Channel	23,907
14 Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG)	23,542
15 Real.com Network	22,713
16 Symantec	21,422
17 Monster	20,107
18 Shopping.com Sites	19,643
19 Expedia Travel	17,696
20 SBC Communications	17,366
21 Gorilla Nation Media	17,255
22 Ask Jeeves	17,247
23 iVillage.com: The Womens Network	17,082
24 AT&T Properties	16,929
25 EA Online	16,618
26 Gannett Sites	15,678
27 News Corp. Online	15,500
28 CareerBuilder LLC	15,262
29 InfoSpace Network	14,698
30 AmericanGreetings Property	14,356
31 Wal-Mart	14,131
32 Tickle Inc.	14,077
33 Sony Online	13,993
34 ORBITZ.COM	13,768
35 Cox Enterprises Inc.	13,688
36 eUniverse Network	13,569
37 Classmates.com Sites	13,269
38 Weatherbug.com Property	13,022
39 Trip Network Inc.	12,027
40 Bank of America	11,800
41 Vivendi-Universal Sites	11,775
42 Travelocity	11,739
43 United Online Inc.	11,532
44 Adobe Sites	11,409
45 Comcast Corporation	11,165
46 Earthlink	10,892
47 Dell	10,839
48 IRS.GOV	10,747
49 Apple Computer Inc.	10,743
50 Hewlett Packard	10,657

Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors April 2004 vs. March 2004
	Mar-04(000)	Apr-04(000)	% Change
Total Internet Users	154,051	155,130	1%
E-Cards	34,259	39,707	16%
Teens	23,937	27,283	14%
Classifieds	32,233	36,581	14%
Humor	28,110	31,363	12%
Retail-Flowers/Gifts/Greetings	25,964	28,749	11%
Religion	10,001	11,056	11%
Careers	42,045	45,971	9%
Retail-Movies	14,324	15,567	9%
Retail-Comparison Shopping	34,057	36,979	9%
Retail-Home Furnishings	19,869	21,083	6%

Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* April 2004 vs. March 2004
Property	Mar-04(000)	Apr-04(000)	% Change	Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet Users	154,051	155,130	1%	N/A
NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM	1,958	3,646	86%	189
Carsdirect Sites	3,161	5,008	58%	141
MLB.COM	5,477	7,927	45%	71
NFL Internet Group	5,648	7,751	37%	74
General Mills	2,007	2,754	37%	245
Hallmark	4,775	6,522	37%	100
Meredith Corporation	3,886	5,191	34%	135
Buy.com Sites	2,314	3,087	33%	220
International Data Group	3,281	4,272	30%	167
CRAIGSLIST.ORG	2,476	3,183	29%	210

Ad Focus RankingUnique Visitors (000) Total US - Home, Work and University Locations April 2004 Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Reach %
	Total Internet Users	155,130	100%
1	Yahoo!	110,436	71%
2	Advertising.com**	105,772	68%
3	MSN	99,829	64%
4	AOL	86,376	56%
5	YAHOO.COM Home Page	73,413	47%
6	GOOGLE.COM	64,433	42%
7	Google Web Search	60,496	39%
8	Yahoo! Search	60,191	39%
9	Yahoo! Mail	54,880	35%
10	MSN.COM Home Page	52,980	34%

All four tables are Total US Home, Work and University Internet Users, Source: comScore Media Metrix. ComScore's web site is at www.comscore.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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