comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for August 2010

Back-to-School Frenzy Impacts Web Activity as Americans Prepare for New School Year

Traffic Driven to Sports Sites for NFL Coverage and Fantasy Football Drafts

News provided by

Sep 23, 2010, 04:00 ET

RESTON, Va., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. web activity at the top online properties for August 2010 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Back-to-school season accelerated the growth of several online categories during the month, from Books and Apparel to Educational Resources and Consumer Goods. Sports sites were also popular in August as Americans geared up for the NFL season and Fantasy Football drafts.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO)

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO)

"Summer vacation came to a close in August, and millions of Americans turned to the Internet to prepare for the new school year," said Jeff Hackett, senior vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "The convenience of back-to-school shopping online appeals to more Americans every year, as incentives such as free shipping for clothing and school supplies become more prevalent."

Americans Read Up on Book Sites

Retail Book sites allowed parents and students to conveniently browse and order books for the new school year. More than 27.5 million people visited a Book site in August, an 11-percent increase versus July, making it the highest growing site category for the month. Barnes & Noble captured the top spot with 8.3 million visitors (up 13 percent), followed by Borders Group, Inc. with 3.0 million visitors, BookSpan Property with 2.3 million visitors and AbeBooks with 1.6 million visitors (up 45 percent). Textbook rental site Chegg.com experienced significant growth during the month, surging 290 percent to 1.4 million visitors.

School Supply Shopping Not Just For Bricks and Mortar

Parents took school supply shopping to the web, with the Consumer Goods category growing 5 percent to 26.2 million visitors in August. Staples.com Sites ranked #1 in the category with 8.0 million visitors during the month (up 16 percent), followed by Office Depot with 5.1 million (up 20 percent), QVC Sites with 4.3 million and OfficeMax with 2.9 million (up 32 percent).

Apparel sites also ranked among the top gaining categories, growing to 65.4 million visitors during the month (up 5 percent), as Americans browsed fall clothing sales for all occasions, including back-to-school. Zappos Sites ranked #1 in the category with 6.4 million visitors, followed by Limitedbrands with 6.3 million visitors and Nike with 5.1 million (up 9 percent). OldNavy.com grew 15 percent to 4.9 million visitors, followed by Nordstrom.com with 3.7 million and Gap Online with 3.4 million (up 32 percent).

Sports Sites Hike as NFL Season Begins

With the start of the NFL season, traffic to Sports sites picked up during the month reaching 123.5 million visitors, a 5-percent gain versus July. Yahoo! Sports, known as a popular destination for fantasy football, ranked #1 in the category with 48.2 million visitors, representing a 23-percent increase from the prior month. FOXSports.com on MSN ranked second with 26.2 million visitors, followed by ESPN with 25.4 million visitors. NFL Internet Group doubled its audience versus July, grabbing the #4 spot with 19.5 million visitors, ranking as the top gaining property for the month.

Top 50 Properties

Yahoo! Sites ranked as the #1 property in August with 179.0 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with 178.8 million and Microsoft Sites with 165.3 million. Viacom Digital jumped 7 positions in the ranking with 81.5 million visitors, while iVillage.com: The Womens Network also climbed 7 spots to 35.3 million visitors.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

BrightRoll Video Network led the August Ad Focus ranking with a potential reach of 99 percent of Americans online, followed by TubeMogul Video Ad Platform with a 97-percent potential reach. SpotXchange Video Ad Network ranked third capturing 97-percent reach, while Firefly Video came in fourth with a potential reach of 93 percent. Both TubeMogul and Firefly appeared on the top 50 ad focus ranking for the first time in August.

Table 1
*comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.) August 2010 vs. July 2010 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix**
	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	Jul-10	Aug-10	% Change	Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience	213,584	212,616	0	N/A
NFL Internet Group	9,744	19,477	100	63
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.	7,473	10,254	37	150
LIMEWIRE.COM	7,713	9,801	27	155
GROUPON.COM	5,302	6,508	23	219
WIZARD101.COM	4,987	5,974	20	242
CollegeHumor Media	10,283	12,171	18	124
Staples.com Sites	6,874	7,986	16	195
Mattel Sites	6,260	7,244	16	204
Gap, Inc.	6,319	7,283	15	202
Nextag.com Sites	7,578	8,696	15	177
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in August 2010. Excludes entities whose growth was primarily due to implementation of Media Metrix 360 unified digital audience measurement.

Table 2
comScore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.) August 2010 vs. July 2010 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	Jul-10	Aug-10	% Change
Total Internet : Total Audience	213,584	212,616	0
Retail – Books	24,911	27,527	11
Career Services and Development – Training and Education	11,860	12,601	6
Community – Food	64,165	67,889	6
Retail – Consumer Goods	24,926	26,193	5
Retail – Apparel	62,383	65,411	5
Retail – Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories	14,996	15,722	5
Sports	117,936	123,510	5
Retail – Food	16,641	17,370	4
Community – Religion/Spirituality	25,946	26,928	4
Entertainment – TV	115,470	119,619	4

Table 3
comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) August 2010 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)
	Total Internet : Total Audience	212,616
1	Yahoo! Sites	179,002	26	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	35,289
2	Google Sites	178,782	27	Gannett Sites	34,923
3	Microsoft Sites	165,271	28	Technorati Media	34,818
4	FACEBOOK.COM	148,048	29	Federated Media Publishing	34,562
5	AOL, Inc.	107,165	30	WeatherBug Property	33,424
6	Glam Media	97,948	31	Disney Online	31,046
7	Ask Network	88,281	32	Break Media Network	30,965
8	Turner Network	84,541	33	Verizon Communications Corporation	30,665
9	Viacom Digital	81,456	34	AT&T Interactive Network	30,028
10	Fox Interactive Media	80,210	35	Superpages.com Network	29,019
11	Amazon Sites	79,188	36	Expedia Inc	28,334
12	CBS Interactive	79,062	37	Target Corporation	27,856
13	Wikimedia Foundation Sites	73,685	38	Tribune Interactive	27,811
14	eBay	69,500	39	YellowBook Network	27,217
15	Apple Inc.	69,383	40	Photobucket.com LLC	26,437
16	New York Times Digital	68,901	41	YellowBook Network	27,940
17	Demand Media	58,798	42	The Washington Post Company	27,711
18	craigslist, inc.	53,400	43	Photobucket.com LLC	27,396
19	VEVO	49,386	44	ESPN	27,197
20	Comcast Corporation	44,106	45	Warner Music	27,151
21	Answers.com Sites	41,254	46	Everyday Health	26,645
22	NetShelter Technology Media	40,584	47	WorldNow Sites	25,630
23	Weather Channel, The	39,074	48	NBC Universal	25,357
24	Wal-Mart	36,683	49	Bank of America	24,986
25	Adobe Sites	35,345	50	TWITTER.COM	24,798

Table 4
comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) August 2010 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	% Reach	Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	% Reach
		Total Internet : Total Audience	212,616	100.0
	1	BrightRoll Video Network - Potential Reach	210,917	99.2	26	FACEBOOK.COM	148,048	69.6
	2	TubeMogul Video Ad Platform - Potential Reach	206,710	97.2	27	FOX Audience Network**	147,522	69.4
	3	SpotXchange Video Ad Network - Potential Reach	206,000	96.9	28	AudienceScience**	145,735	68.5
	4	Firefly Video - Potential Reach	197,048	92.7	29	Traffic Marketplace**	143,094	67.3
	5	Tremor Media - Potential Reach	194,496	91.5	30	interCLICK**	142,013	66.8
	6	BBE - Potential Reach	192,830	90.7	31	Casale Media - MediaNet**	141,725	66.7
	7	YuMe Video Network - Potential Reach	191,611	90.1	32	Tribal Fusion**	140,120	65.9
	8	Yahoo! Network**	184,925	87.0	33	Break Media - Potential Reach	135,273	63.6
	9	AOL Advertising**	183,635	86.4	34	Pulse 360**	134,471	63.2
	10	Adconion Video Network - Potential Reach	182,930	86.0	35	ContextWeb**	131,104	61.7
	11	Google Ad Network**	181,522	85.4	36	Burst Media**	130,538	61.4
	12	Advertising.com Video Network - Potential Reach	181,459	85.3	37	Viacom Digital Network - Potential Reach	129,474	60.9
	13	ScanScout Network - Potential Reach	180,644	85.0	38	Adconion Media Group**	128,141	60.3
	14	Yahoo! Sites	179,002	84.2	39	BuzzLogic Conversation Network - Potential Reach	122,927	57.8
	15	ValueClick Networks**	171,772	80.8	40	MSN	120,902	56.9
	16	TidalTV - Potential Reach	170,967	80.4	41	NNN Total Newspapers: U.S.	115,417	54.3
	17	Google	170,708	80.3	42	YOUTUBE.COM*	112,921	53.1
	18	Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG) - Potential Reach	169,371	79.7	43	CPX Interactive**	109,189	51.4
	19	Turn Platform**	161,791	76.1	44	AOL Media Network	107,747	50.7
	20	AdBrite**	160,406	75.4	45	AOL, Inc.	107,165	50.4
	21	24/7 Real Media**	160,140	75.3	46	ITN Digital - Potential Reach	106,817	50.2
	22	Specific Media**	158,576	74.6	47	Centro - Potential Reach	106,592	50.1
	23	Jivox Video Network - Potential Reach	154,793	72.8	48	Adify**	106,444	50.1
	24	Microsoft Media Network US**	152,794	71.9	49	MTVN Tribes - Potential Reach	104,797	49.3
	25	Collective Network**	151,866	71.4	50	IB Local Network - Potential Reach	102,561	48.2
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in August. For instance, Yahoo! Sites was seen by 84.2 percent of the 213 million Internet users in August. * Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities. ** Denotes an advertising network.

About comScore Media Metrix

comScore Media Metrix provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. comScore Media Metrix reports are used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers. comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

SOURCE comScore, Inc.