RESTON, Va., July 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 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 June 2009 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Online visitation to travel sites gained as Americans began planning and preparing for their summer vacations. The end of another school year resulted in an increase of interest at gaming sites. Career services and development sites saw strong growth due to the influx of recent college graduates entering the job market, in addition to a rising unemployment rate.

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"Travel sites typically see an increase in activity around this time of year as Americans look to get away," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "Summer vacation also means more leisure time for those out of school, leading to a seasonal increase in leisure categories including online gaming and entertainment."

Online Vacation Planning Jumps in June

June heated up the Travel category as Americans sought seasonal getaways. The Airlines category ranked as the top gaining category for June, growing 22 percent to 33.2 million visitors. Also among the top gaining categories were Travel Transactions, Online Travel Agents, and Travel Information. Southwest Airlines, the top ranked site in the Airlines category, achieved particularly strong gains growing 64 percent to 16.4 million visitors and grabbing the #2 position among the top gaining properties.

Online travel agent sites also experienced growth in June, increasing 9 percent to 42.8 million visitors. Expedia led the category with 27 million visitors (up 12 percent), followed by Orbitz with 12.5 million visitors (up 10 percent), Priceline with 11.3 million (up 7 percent), and Travelocity with nearly 9.8 million visitors (up 8 percent).

Americans Say "Game On" in June

Online gaming sites saw a surge in activity in June, as the beginning of summer vacation provided students with more leisure time for such pursuits. The Gaming Information category attracted 50 million Americans in June, up 6 percent vs. the previous month. With school out for the summer, students found ways to spend their free time on sites such as GiantRealm and GameStop, with both sites ranking among the top 10 gaining properties in June. GiantRealm jumped 25 percent to more than 7 million visitors while GameStop grew 19 percent to nearly 5.8 million visitors.

Job-Seekers Make an Effort Online

Rising unemployment during the past year has led to an increasing number of Americans seeking jobs and career opportunities online. Both the Career Resources and Career Training & Education categories ranked among the top ten gaining categories for June as the unemployed, underemployed and recent grads scoured the Web for opportunities. The Career Resources category grew 6 percent to 46.8 million visitors, while Career Training & Education grew 13 percent to 6.7 million visitors.

Top 50 Properties

Google Sites continued to lead as the most visited property in June with nearly 157 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 154 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 127.4 million visitors. Facebook.com moved up two positions to #6 marking its highest-ever ranking. Career Builder ascended 6 spots to #39 with 21.7 million visitors, a reflection of the Career Services & Development category gain. The Mozilla Organization jumped 13 spots to #28 with nearly 27 million visitors, due to the release of Firefox 3.5 which includes numerous new and improved features. June also represented Twitter.com's debut in the ranking of the top 50 properties, coming in at #46 with 20.1 million visitors.

"It's hard to believe that Twitter.com had fewer than a million visitors in June 2008, and now attracts more than 20 million visitors a month and ranks among the top 50 U.S. properties," Flanagan commented. "Twitter has clearly been able to generate wide interest and cultivate a substantial following in a very short period of time. If this momentum persists, then we will continue to see Twitter climb higher and higher in this ranking in the coming months."

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

Platform-A led the June Ad Focus ranking, reaching 91 percent of all Americans online. Yahoo! Network ranked second, reaching 88 percent of the population, while ValueClick Networks ranked third with an 84-percent reach. Fox Audience Network and 24/7 Real Media each climbed one spot grabbing the #7 and #8 positions, respectively.

Table 1

    comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in
    Unique Visitors* (U.S.)
    June 2009 vs. May 2009
    Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
    Source: comScore Media Metrix
    -----------------------------
                                           Total Unique Visitors (000)
                                           ---------------------------
                                                                       Rank by
                                                                        Unique
                                   May-09      Jun-09     % Change    Visitors
    Total Internet : Total
     Audience                      193,825     193,896         0           N/A
    NameMedia                        2,336       5,975       156           195
    Southwest Airlines Co.          10,021      16,471        64            59
    Systemax Inc.                    2,912       4,625        59           250
    TAGGED.COM                       6,248       8,373        34           129
    The Mozilla Organization        20,610      26,964        31            28
    Xacti Corporation                7,810       9,812        26           105
    GiantRealm                       5,618       7,011        25           157
    Disney Online                   25,966      31,362        21            24
    Sheknows                         8,599      10,285        20           100
    GameStop                         4,874       5,791        19           201

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in June 2009.

Table 2

    comScore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories* by
    Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)
    June 2009 vs. May 2009
    Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
    Source: comScore Media Metrix
    -----------------------------
                                       Total Unique Visitors (000)
                                       ---------------------------
                                     May-09      Jun-09     % Change
    Total Internet : Total
     Audience                        193,825     193,896         0
    Travel - Airlines                 27,323      33,290        22
    Career Services & Development
     - Training & Education            5,954       6,729        13
    News/Information - Politics       11,642      12,977        11
    Travel - Transactions              3,980       4,386        10
    Travel - Online Travel Agents     39,232      42,863         9
    Games - Gaming Information        47,053      49,950         6
    Career Services & Development
     - Career Resources               44,204      46,803         6
    Entertainment - News              54,946      57,955         5
    Financial Information/Advice      37,688      39,557         5
    Travel - Information              40,509      42,461         5

Table 3

    comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)
    June 2009
    Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
    Unique Visitors (000)
    Source: comScore Media Metrix
    -----------------------------
                                                Unique
                                               Visitors
    Rank      Property                          (000)
    ----      --------                         --------
           Total Internet : Total Audience     193,896
    1      Google Sites                        156,871
    2      Yahoo! Sites                        154,097
    3      Microsoft Sites                     127,454
    4      AOL LLC                             106,467
    5      Fox Interactive Media                84,567
    6      FACEBOOK.COM                         77,031
    7      Ask Network                          73,041
    8      eBay                                 71,020
    9      Amazon Sites                         63,178
    10     Wikimedia Foundation Sites           60,692
    11     Apple Inc.                           56,554
    12     Glam Media                           54,223
    13     Viacom Digital                       51,575
    14     Turner Network                       50,841
    15     CBS Interactive                      50,341
    16     craigslist, inc.                     46,832
    17     New York Times Digital               44,789
    18     Weather Channel, The                 41,751
    19     Adobe Sites                          38,120
    20     Comcast Corporation                  34,865
    21     Verizon Communications
            Corporation                         33,436
    22     Wal-Mart                             33,358
    23     AT&T Interactive Network             31,582
    24     Disney Online                        31,362
    25     Demand Media                         28,938
    26     Superpages.com Network               28,367
    27     Expedia Inc                          27,058
    28     The Mozilla Organization             26,964
    29     Target Corporation                   26,284
    30     WordPress                            26,245
    31     Answers.com Sites                    26,163
    32     Bank of America                      25,479
    33     Photobucket.com LLC                  24,528
    34     AT&T, Inc.                           24,032
    35     Gorilla Nation                       24,022
    36     United Online, Inc                   22,828
    37     Everyday Health                      22,374
    38     Break Media                          22,334
    39     CareerBuilder LLC                    21,704
    40     NBC Universal                        21,202
    41     ESPN                                 20,984
    42     NetShelter Technology Media          20,635
    43     iVillage.com: The Womens Network     20,594
    44     Weatherbug Property                  20,465
    45     JPMorgan Chase Property              20,211
    46     TWITTER.COM*                         20,111
    47     Real.com Network                     19,918
    48     EA Online                            19,607
    49     Gannett Sites                        19,298
    50     Time Warner -Excluding AOL           19,293

Table 4

    comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)
    June 2009
    Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
    Unique Visitors (000)
    Source: comScore Media Metrix
    -----------------------------
                                                        Unique
                                                       Visitors
    Rank  Property                                       (000)    % Reach
    ----  --------                                      -------   -------
          Total Internet : Total Audience               193,896     100.0
    1     Platform-A**                                  175,765     91%
    2     Yahoo! Network**                              169,809     88%
    3     ValueClick Networks**                         163,369     84%
    4     Google Ad Network**                           162,834     84%
    5     Specific Media**                              156,230     81%
    6     Yahoo! Sites                                  154,097     79%
    7     FOX Audience Network**                        151,078     78%
    8     24/7 Real Media**                             149,373     77%
    9     Google                                        149,128     77%
    10    Microsoft Media Network US**                  146,841     76%
    11    Tremor Media - Potential Reach                141,677     73%
    12    Traffic Marketplace**                         138,584     71%
    13    Tribal Fusion**                               138,520     71%
    14    YuMe Video Network - Potential Reach          137,848     71%
    15    interCLICK**                                  134,319     69%
    16    Turn, Inc**                                   133,756     69%
    17    Casale Media - MediaNet**                     133,398     69%
    18    CPX Interactive**                             130,826     67%
    19    Collective Network by Collective Media**      130,254     67%
    20    AudienceScience (formerly Revenue Science)**  128,713     66%
    21    Adconion Media Group**                        123,284     64%
    22    Platform-A Video Network - Potential Reach    122,488     63%
    23    Burst Media**                                 114,695     59%
    24    ADSDAQ by ContextWeb**                        112,530     58%
    25    AOL Media Network                             106,340     55%
    26    BrightRoll Video Network - Potential Reach    100,042     52%
    27    AdBrite**                                     95,352      49%
    28    MSN                                           93,180      48%
    29    YOUTUBE.COM                                   91,804      47%
    30    Pulse 360**                                   91,252      47%
    31    Undertone Networks**                          90,130      46%
    32    Adify**                                       84,538      44%
    33    Vibrant Media**                               81,213      42%
    34    Monster Career Ad Network (CAN)**             78,025      40%
    35    FACEBOOK.COM                                  77,031      40%
    36    Kontera**                                     74,814      39%
    37    Ask Network                                   73,041      38%
    38    NNN Total Newspapers: U.S.                    71,500      37%
    39    Centro - Potential Reach                      70,861      37%
    40    Windows Live                                  68,531      35%
    41    MYSPACE.COM*                                  68,418      35%
    42    ITN Digital - Potential Reach                 66,498      34%
    43    TattoMedia**                                  61,180      32%
    44    Bing                                          60,736      31%
    45    MSN.COM Home Page                             60,526      31%
    46    IAC Ad Solutions                              56,756      29%
    47    EBAY.COM                                      54,457      28%
    48    Glam Media                                    54,223      28%
    49    AMAZON.COM                                    52,921      27%
    50    IB Local Network                              51,226      26.4%

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in May. For instance, Yahoo! Sites was seen by 79 percent of the nearly 194 million Internet users in June.

* 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.

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