US Surfers Flock to Celebrity Site

Celebrities' salaries, photo printing, and an alternative web broswer drove the biggest visitor increases to web sites last month, according to comScore. The figures also reveal Americans using the web to make the most of vacations - from buying cars and sports equipment to booking travel and finding cooking tips.

The latest Media Metrix survey identifies Forbes as the highest-gaining site in June. Its release of the 'Celebrity 100' list of highest-paid personalities boosted the site's traffic by 28% to 6.4 million visitors. Online photo service Snapfish saw the second highest visitor gain - up 27% to 3.6 million visitors thanks to a price cut for photo printing. Mozilla, whose Firefox web browser was named PC World magazine's '2005 Product of the Year' in June, was the third highest gaining site, up 21% to 5.8 million visitors.

Various promotions helped to increase traffic to automotive manufacturers' sites. Mitsubishi saw a massive spike in June, increasing 259 percent to 1.2 million visitors, thanks to an interactive advertisement for its latest Eclipse model. General Motors, which introduced a new financing option, received 8.5 million visitors - a 7% increase from May. Meanwhile, traffic to DaimlerChrysler jumped 17% following the release of its new Dodge Charger model.

Visits to travel sites also rose, with online travel spending reaching $5.1 billion in June 2005, up 25% from June 2004. The 'Hotels and Resorts' category was the strongest, growing 9% in June, partly driven by a 21% rise in visits to InterContinental Hotels Group and a 19% increase for Marriott.

Summer leisure helped make 'Retail - Sports/Outdoors' the second-highest gaining category in June, rising 9% to 20.2 million visitors. Swimming wear and equipment seller SwimOutlet.com grew by 53%, and there were significant increases in traffic to GSI network's sporting goods sites MCSports (65%), Modell's (53%) and Dick's Sporting Goods (25%).

Short trips and days out helped to increase visits to map web sites by 4%. Many Americans also turned to car rental sites to help plan their trips. Traffic to this category increased by 5%, following an 8% growth in May.

Those staying at home in the sun also turned to the web. The food category reached 33.2 million visitors in June, up 5% from May. Traffic to AOL Food soared by 46% to 2.4 million, mainly due to its grilling tips. Meanwhile, McDonald's enjoyed a 24% increase as consumers flocked to enter a kids' bedroom makeover competition.

Gay and lesbian-related sites gained many visitors in June, with visitors jumping by 10% to 1.6 million visitors as gay pride was celebrated with parades and festivals across the country. The top property in the category was the PlanetOut network of sites, with one million visitors - an increase of 12%.

The company is online 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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