by Andrew Redfern @ 19th February 2008 10:31 am

comScore today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties for January 2008 from the comScore Media Metrix service. The month saw increased visits to tax, politics, career, real estate and travel-related sites.

“The new year represents a time for Americans to reflect on the past year and plan for the coming year, whether it’s searching for a new job, a new residence, or preparing for tax season,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.

“There was also a huge surge in activity at political content sites as the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries kicked off with the Iowa caucuses in early January.”

The official beginning of tax season sent Americans online in droves, driving the tax category up 202 percent to more than 23 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category in January. IRS.gov led the category with 12.5 million visitors (up 181 percent), followed by TaxACT with 5.8 million visitors (up more than 1,000 percent), and H&R Block with 5.3 million visitors (up 312 percent).

As the presidential primaries kicked off, the politics category jumped 65 percent to 13.8 million visitors as Americans went online for news coverage and opinions and to visit candidate Web sites.

BarackObama.com led the category with 2.2 million visitors, up 429 percent from December, followed by HillaryClinton.com with 1.1 million visitors (up 202 percent).

On the Republican side, MikeHuckabee.com attracted 937,000 visitors, up 96 percent, while JohnMcCain.com grew 261 percent to 596,000 visitors.

As many Americans reevaluated their current career situations with the New Year, the career services and development category experienced a 31-percent gain for the month. The category was led by CareerBuilder LLC with 24.8 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! HotJobs with 17.4 million visitors and Monster with 17.1 million visitors.

Concerns over a shaky real estate market, along with those resolving to move residences in 2008, precipitated a 28-percent gain to 42 million visitors to the real estate category in January. Move Network led the category with 10.1 million visitors (up 49 percent), followed by Yahoo! Real Estate with 4.6 million visitors (50 percent), and Rent.com with 3.5 million visitors (up 51 percent).

Travel-related sites experienced an increase in traffic as people looked to escape the winter doldrums and take advantage of post-holiday travel deals. Ground/cruise sites gained 27 percent to 11.3 million visitors, while car rental sites grew 26 percent to 5.1 million visitors, and hotels/resorts gained 23 percent to nearly 31 million visitors.

Yahoo! Sites continued to lead as the top property with more than 138 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with nearly 135 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 119 million visitors. Beginning with January comScore Media Metrix data, Time Warner Network has now been divided into AOL LLC, which includes all AOL related entities, and Time Warner - Excluding AOL.

During the month, large increases were experienced by the following properties; Superpages.com Network (rising 13 spots to position 19), Disney Online (up four spots to position 22), and Expedia Inc. (up nine spots to 32). CareerBuilder LLC entered the ranking this month grabbing position 27.

Platform A, the ad network combining Advertising.com, Tacoda, AOL, and Quigo, debuted this month in the top spot in the Ad Focus Ranking, reaching 91 percent of the more than 184 million Americans online. Substantial gains were achieved by Adconion Media Group (up four spots to 14), PrecisionClick (up six spots to 35), and Kontera (up four spots to 36).

Three entities joined the ranking this month; Turn, Inc., IACAS Network, and CNN.

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