comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for March 2011

Americans Explore Greener Lifestyles for Earth Hour as Gas Prices Climb

Travel Sites See Pickup as Warmer Months Approach

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Apr 22, 2011, 10:30 ET

RESTON, Va., April 22, 2011 /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 March 2011 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Green lifestyles were top of mind for many Americans in March as the country took part in the annual Earth Hour (March 26) amid rising fuel costs. Travel sites spiked as springtime rolled in, helping visitors to plan last minute spring break getaways and upcoming summer vacations.

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"Green sites earned the #1 spot on the top gaining categories ranking in March -- a result of Americans seeking ways to cut back on energy consumption beyond Earth Hour amid a backdrop of skyrocketing gas prices," said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "Travel sites were also popular during the month as many Americans booked last minute spring break trips and looked ahead to plan summer vacations."

Americans Paint the Web Green

Year-round tree huggers and gas price-conscious Americans alike had reason to visit Green sites in March. The category drew nearly 20 million visitors during the month, up 11 percent versus February to rank as the top gaining category. Planet Green Sites topped the category with nearly 2.9 million visitors, representing a 24-percent increase from the prior month. Care2.com came in second with 1.9 million visitors, followed by Shine Green with 1.7 million and Mother Nature Network with 1.5 million (up 3 percent). Matter Network grew 37 percent to 985,000 visitors, while EnergyGuide.com saw 870,000 and EPA.gov reached 833,000 (up 17 percent).

Travel Sites Spring into Action

Americans frequented travel sites in March, putting several of the travel subcategories among the top gainers. Travel Information sites attracted more than 61.4 million visitors, up 10 percent from the prior month. TravelAdNetwork took the top spot with 19.9 million visitors (up 8 percent), followed by Yahoo! Travel with 12.6 million (up 22 percent), Tripadvisor Sites with 10.0 million (up 14 percent) and AOL Travel with 6.5 million (up 63 percent).

Car Rental sites grew 9 percent to 6.0 million unique visitors in March, with Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company taking the #1 spot with 3.3 million visitors (up 9 percent) and Avis Budget Group with 1.8 million (up 4 percent). Hertz came in third with 979,000 visitors, followed by Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. with 968,000 (up 19 percent) and CarRentals.com with 934,000 (up 31 percent).

Traffic Builds at Home Improvement Sites

Americans browsed Home Improvement sites in March for fresh decorating ideas and gardening tips. More than 49 million people visited the category during the month (up 10 percent vs. February), with eHow Home and Garden taking the top spot with 8.8 million visitors. iVillage Home and Garden drew 6.8 million visitors (up 32 percent), followed by HGTV with 6.1 million (up 13 percent) and Shelterpop with 3.0 million (up 46 percent).

Top 50 Properties

Yahoo! Sites ranked as the #1 property in March with 179.5 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with 176.8 million and Microsoft Sites with 176.4 million. Sites new to the top 50 in March included FoxNews.com (#41), Time Warner (#49) and BuzzMedia (#50).

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

Google Ad Network led the March Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 91.7 percent of Americans online, followed by Yahoo! Sites (84.4 percent), Yahoo! Network Plus (83.9 percent) and AOL Advertising (83.8 percent).

Table 1

*comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.) March 2011 vs. February 2011 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix**
	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	Feb-11	Mar-11	% Change	Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience	209,933	212,652	1	N/A
ZYNGA.COM	2,773	7,311	164	206
USTREAM.TV	3,697	6,166	67	243
Sun Microsystems, Inc.	4,711	7,081	50	211
A&E Television Networks Digital	8,071	11,097	37	140
Bankrate.com Sites	5,726	7,774	36	196
MLB.COM	4,860	6,598	36	224
Guardian Media Group	8,043	10,892	35	143
BBC Sites	14,296	19,348	35	75
TheStreet.com Sites	4,935	6,517	32	228
LivingSocial	5,551	7,050	27	212
Ranking based on the top 250 properties in March 2011. 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.) March 2011 vs. February 2011 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	Feb-11	Mar-11	% Change
Total Internet : Total Audience	209,933	212,652	1
Community – Green	18,027	19,949	11
News/Information – General News	150,509	166,113	10
Travel – Information	55,715	61,372	10
Services – Instant Messengers	42,861	47,139	10
Community – Home	45,053	49,398	10
Travel – Car Rental	5,464	5,982	9
Career Services and Development – Job Search	24,717	27,040	9
Community – Religion/Spirituality	25,720	28,079	9
Travel – Transactions	3,472	3,767	8
Retail – Tickets	21,181	22,907	8

Table 3

comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) March 2011 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	212,652
1	Yahoo! Sites	179,525	26	Weather Channel, The	38,676
2	Google Sites	176,847	27	Federated Media Publishing	37,731
3	Microsoft Sites	176,411	28	Adobe Sites	37,186
4	FACEBOOK.COM	152,968	29	Tribune Interactive	34,880
5	AOL, Inc.	118,194	30	Superpages.com Network	34,743
6	Turner Digital	99,839	31	YellowBook Network	34,504
7	Ask Network	98,560	32	LINKEDIN.COM	32,079
8	Amazon Sites	91,614	33	Wal-Mart	31,734
9	CBS Interactive	87,408	34	Break Media Network	31,349
10	Glam Media	87,072	35	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	30,847
11	Viacom Digital	80,899	36	AT&T Interactive Network	29,116
12	Demand Media	76,542	37	YELP.COM	28,716
13	Wikimedia Foundation Sites	72,719	38	WeatherBug Property	28,703
14	Apple Inc.	70,648	39	NBC Universal	27,765
15	New York Times Digital	70,401	40	WordPress	27,633
16	eBay	61,115	41	FOXNEWS.COM	27,019
17	Answers.com Sites	58,856	42	NETFLIX.COM	26,766
18	VEVO	57,088	43	Everyday Health	26,749
19	Fox Interactive Media	55,901	44	Scripps Networks Interactive Inc.	26,330
20	craigslist, inc.	50,857	45	Disney Online	25,808
21	Comcast Corporation	48,756	46	Expedia Inc	25,653
22	ESPN	43,147	47	TWITTER.COM	25,590
23	Technorati Media	42,882	48	The Washington Post Company	25,369
24	NetShelter Technology Media	42,360	49	Time Warner (Excl. Turner/WB)	24,861
25	Gannett Sites	41,970	50	BUZZMEDIA	24,767

Table 4

comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) March 2011 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	212,652	100.0
1	Google Ad Network**	194,966	91.7	26	AOL, Inc.	118,194	55.6
2	Yahoo! Sites	179,525	84.4	27	ContextWeb**	116,845	54.9
3	Yahoo! Network Plus**	178,382	83.9	28	YOUTUBE.COM*	113,072	53.2
4	AOL Advertising**	178,238	83.8	29	Cox Digital Solutions - Network**	107,107	50.4
5	ShareThis	171,937	80.9	30	Kontera**	98,765	46.4
6	Google	168,926	79.4	31	Ask Network	98,560	46.3
7	Turn Media Platform**	168,637	79.3	32	Bing	98,511	46.3
8	ValueClick Networks**	164,817	77.5	33	CPX Interactive**	95,617	45.0
9	24/7 Real Media**	161,406	75.9	34	Undertone**	95,002	44.7
10	Specific Media**	154,861	72.8	35	Glam Media	87,072	40.9
11	FACEBOOK.COM	152,968	71.9	36	Meebo	82,829	39.0
12	AdBrite**	152,660	71.8	37	Windows Live	77,907	36.6
13	Vibrant Media**	151,414	71.2	38	Demand Media	76,542	36.0
14	Collective Display**	150,686	70.9	39	Monster Career Ad Network (CAN)**	74,391	35.0
15	Tribal Fusion**	143,481	67.5	40	Technorati Media**	72,564	34.1
16	Microsoft Media Network US**	141,036	66.3	41	MediaWhiz**	67,084	31.5
17	AudienceScience**	137,836	64.8	42	Dedicated Media**	66,867	31.4
18	FOX Audience Network**	137,357	64.6	43	Brand.net Network**	61,529	28.9
19	interclick**	134,200	63.1	44	AMAZON.COM	61,169	28.8
20	Burst Media**	133,687	62.9	45	MTV Networks Music	56,596	26.6
21	Traffic Marketplace**	132,516	62.3	46	CNN	54,208	25.5
22	Casale Media - MediaNet**	131,069	61.6	47	Lotame Solutions**	52,886	24.9
23	MSN	126,476	59.5	48	RMM (formerly Red McCombs Media)**	52,716	24.8
24	Adconion Media Group**	125,097	58.8	49	ESPN	43,147	20.3
25	AdBlade Network**	122,957	57.8	50	Technorati Media	42,882	20.2
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in March. For instance, Yahoo! Sites was seen by 84.4 percent of the 212 million Internet users in March. * 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 business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

SOURCE comScore, Inc.

comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for March 2011

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