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Top 50 web sites for May 2008

By Andrew Redfern @ 19th June 2008 9:09 am

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for May 2008 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Content categories showing gains in May included flowers/gifts/greetings, jewelry/luxury goods/accessories, coupon, and travel sites.

“Mother’s Day was a key driver of Web activity in May, as the convenience of online shopping for flowers and gifts drew many to retail sites,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “Summer travel was also on Americans’ minds this month as warmer weather and the end of the school year spurred vacation planning.

With Americans feeling the pocket pinch of soaring gas prices, rising food costs and an unsteady market, scouring the Internet for hot travel deals was essential for many to ensure an affordable summer vacation.”

Flowers/gifts/greetings sites saw gains with the celebration of Mother’s Day on May 11. The category reached 42.4 million visitors, up 15 percent from April, making it the top-gaining category for the month. AmericanGreetings Property led the category with 15.7 million visitors (up 5 percent), followed by Hallmark with 5.5 million visitors (up 23 percent).

Proflowers.com ranked third with nearly 5.5 million visitors, representing a 319-percent gain versus April and ranking it as one of the top-gaining properties for the month. The e-cards category also saw traffic increase, as it grew 8 percent to more than 35 million visitors.

Other retail categories gained as a result of Mother’s Day, including jewelry/luxury goods/accessories (up 9 percent to 17.5 million visitors) and mall sites (up 9 percent to 29 million visitors). MSN Shopping led the mall category with 7 million visitors, a 25-percent jump from April.

With rising consumer costs affecting many Americans, coupon sites saw their traffic soar in May as people looked for ways of reducing their monthly budgets. The category grew 11 percent to 24.5 million visitors during the month, as each of the top five sites in the category experienced double-digit gains. Coupons, Inc. led the category with 7.2 million visitors (up 20 percent), followed by Eversave.com with 5.2 million visitors (up 13 percent) and CoolSavings.com with more than 5.1 million visitors (up 24 percent).

With Memorial Day marking the unofficial beginning of summer and vacation season, several travel categories achieved gains. The travel-information category grew 9 percent to more than 47 million visitors, led by Travel Ad Network with 11.7 million visitors (up 7 percent), Yahoo! Travel with 10 million visitors (up 5 percent), and Tripadvisor Sites with 8.2 million visitors (up 16 percent).

Online travel agent sites grew 7 percent to 45 million visitors, led by Expedia Inc. with 25.4 million visitors (up 8 percent), Travelocity with 12 million visitors (up 10 percent), and Orbitz.com with more than 9 million visitors. Travel – ground/cruise sites also saw an increase, up 6 percent to 11.2 million visitors.

Google Sites maintained its #1 position in the Top Properties ranking, reaching 143.4 million Americans in May. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with nearly 143 million visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites with 121.3 million visitors. Time Warner – Excluding AOL moved up one position to #9 with 56 million visitors. IRS.gov jumped 14 positions to #20 with 31 million
visitors, propelled by Americans checking the status of tax refunds and stimulus checks.

Platform-A continued to lead the Ad Focus ranking, reaching 90 percent of the nearly 191 million Americans online in May. 24/7 Real Media moved up three spots to #15, while Turn, Inc. jumped 6 positions to #26, reaching 39 percent of the online population.

1    Google Sites         143,389
2    Yahoo! Sites         142,925
3    Microsoft Sites      121,257
4    AOL LLC              111,395
5    Fox Interactive
6    eBay                  78,271
7    Wikipedia Sites       59,090
8    Amazon Sites          58,314
9    Time Warner -
10   Ask Network           54,563
11   New York Times
12   Apple Inc.            48,050
13   Viacom Digital        43,669
14   Glam Media            42,048
15   Weather Channel, The 36,380
16   Facebook.com          35,594
17   CNET Networks         33,142
18   craigslist, inc.      31,489
19   Wal-Mart              31,196
20   IRS.GOV               31,113
21   Superpages.com
22   Target Corporation    29,981
23   AT&T, Inc.            29,691
24   Verizon Communications Corporation          29,095
25   Disney Online         28,350
26   Adobe Sites            28,107
27   Comcast Corporation           26,564
28   Yellowpages.com Network               26,505
29   Expedia Inc            25,415
30   Gorilla Nation         24,747
31   Bank of America        23,966
32   Shopzilla.com
33   United Online, Inc     23,768
34   CBS Corporation        23,456
35   CareerBuilder LLC      22,921
36   Photobucket.com LLC    22,698
37   Gannett Sites          22,592
38   Monster Worldwide      21,325
39   Demand Media           21,273
40   WordPress              20,015
41   Real.com Network       19,885
42   ESPN                   18,981
43   E.W. Scripps           18,741
44   WebMD Health           18,391
45   Hearst Corporation     18,312
46   WorldNow – ABC Network
47   Cox Enterprises Inc.   17,853
48   Answers.com Sites      17,630
49   WhitePages             17,492

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