RESTON, Va., June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories. In addition to shopping for Moms and Grads, checking out job sites, and staying on top of personal finance and politics in May, Americans also flocked to their favorite TV show and sports sites, including those focused on the World Cup and NBA playoff games. The social networking phenomenon also continued its stratospheric ascent, as MySpace.com reached new heights with 50 million visitors in May and YouTube.com nearly doubled its traffic from April, reaching 12.6 million visitors.

"The popularity of social networking is not expected to wane in the near future," said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. "This is a phenomenon we're seeing not only in the U.S., but also around the world. The challenge for social networking sites will now be monetization and how advertisers will respond to the global marketing potential of these sites."

TABLE 1 Selected Social Networking Properties by Unique Visitors May 2006 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix Property May-06 (000) Total Internet Population 172,120 MYSPACE.COM 51,441 Classmates.com Sites 14,792 FACEBOOK.COM 14,069 YOUTUBE.COM 12,669 MSN Spaces 9,566 XANGA.COM 7,146 FLICKR.COM 5,163 Yahoo! 360 degrees 4,936 LIVEJOURNAL.COM 3,904 MYYEARBOOK.COM 3,048

Professional Soccer and Basketball Garner Attention Weeks before June Championships

Americans demonstrated their interest in the World Cup soccer tournament and NBA Playoffs in the weeks preceding the June tournaments. As evidence, the NBA Internet Network attracted 6.3 million visitors in May (a 24-percent increase versus April), and fifaworldcup.yahoo.com -- the official World Cup site -- doubled its traffic, reaching more than 788,000 visitors. Even more impressive was the worldwide traffic to the official World Cup site during the opening days of the tournament, with more than 5 million unique visitors from around the globe visiting the site on the opening day, Friday, June 9. Traffic to the site remained strong throughout the opening weekend, with average daily visitors through Sunday, June 11, surpassing 4.4 million visitors.

Spring TV Sweeps Drive Web Traffic "Upfront" and Center

With spring sweeps in full swing, fans headed to TV Web sites in numbers to check out details for the season finales of their favorite shows. ABC, which aggressively promoted streamed versions of its hit shows "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," was rewarded with a 39-percent increase in visitors to ABC.com, surging to 6.9 million visitors. Traffic to the official "Lost" site increased 71 percent to 1.2 million visitors in May. Meanwhile, the "Desperate Housewives" site attracted 528,000 visitors, up 36 percent from the prior month, and the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" site saw a 41-percent uptick in traffic to 286,000 visitors. The season finale of NBC's long running ER drove traffic to the show's site, with 236,000 visitors in May, up 49 percent compared to April.

Moms Receive Buds and Bling for Mother's Day

Increases in visitation to the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings and Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories categories were likely attributable to shoppers researching and buying gifts for Mother's Day and graduation celebrations. Traffic to the Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories category increased 15 percent versus April to 15.9 million visitors, with RedEnvelope.com leading the category at 1.6 million visitors (up 25 percent). Traffic to the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category rose 10 percent in May versus the prior month. This rise helped fuel a 16-percent increase in online sales to the category during the week leading up to Mother's Day, compared to the same week in 2005 ($195.8 million vs. $168.5 million). Top gainers in the category during May included Proflowers.com and FTD.com, both achieving 120-percent gains versus April (4.1 and 5.4 million visitors, respectively).

Jobs and Finances are a Focus in May

As Americans watched interest rates continue to rise, their visitation to sites in the Financial News/ Research category increased 12 percent in May (up to 48.8 million). Traffic to Financial Information/ Advice sites also increased during the month from 39.9 million visitors in April to 42 million visitors in May, led by traffic increases at Freecreditreport.com (up 21 percent to 6.8 million visitors), and Loanweb.com (up 141 percent to 5.8 million visitors).

Additionally, traffic to job search and career resource sites saw impressive gains (see Table 3) as graduates readied themselves for the real world. Leading the job search sites were CareerBuilder.com Job Search, with 8.1 million visitors in May (a 9 percent increase from April), Monster.com Job Search with 7.3 million visitors (a 9 percent increase), and Yahoo! HotJobs Job Search with 3.4 million visitors (a 12 percent increase).

Visitation to Political Web Sites Increases in May

As the buzz about upcoming Congressional and gubernatorial races grew in May, so did traffic to political Web. In fact, the politics category was the top gaining category in May with 8.1 million visitors, rising 31 percent versus the previous month. Leading sites within the politics category include Capitol Advantage, dedicated to connecting organizations to national and state elected officials, (up 126 percent to 1.6 million visitors); WorldNetDaily.com, independent news site, (up 20 percent to 637,000 visitors) and political action site, Moveon.org, (up 14 percent to 492,000 visitors).

Top 50 Properties

Yahoo! Sites retained its position as the number one property in May, attracting more than 130 million unique visitors, while Time Warner Network traded places with MSN-Microsoft Sites to claim the number two spot, drawing slightly more than 119 million visitors. Social networking site Facebook.com entered the ranking at number 49, attracting 13 percent more visitors than the previous month.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

In May, Advertising.com retained the number one spot, reaching 83 percent of Americans online. Also within the top ten, advertising networks Tribal Fusion and Casale Media Network claimed the number five and six spots respectively, each reaching more than 100 million Americans. Other noteworthy gainers included Monster.com, which jumped eight spots to number 41, and Travelocity All, which moved up four spots to number 39. Mamma Media Solutions and Whitepages.com both reentered the ranking at numbers 46 and 50, respectively.

TABLE 2 Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* May 2006 vs. April 2006 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix Rank by Property Apr-06 May-06 Percentage Unique (000) (000) Change Visitors Total Internet Population 171,690 172,120 0% N/A TOPTVBYTES.COM 1,761 5,316 202% 170 LOANWEB.COM 2,411 5,807 141% 154 PROFLOWERS.COM 1,865 4,105 120% 218 FTD.COM 2,496 5,479 120% 161 YOUTUBE.COM 6,592 12,669 92% 61 1-800-Flowers 2,185 3,887 78% 228 Roxio, Inc 2,780 4,698 69% 192 FRONTIERNET.NET 2,163 3,575 65% 249 BIGFISHGAMES.COM 2,301 3,673 60% 242 HighBeam Research Sites 2,555 3,729 46% 239 *Ranking based on the top 250 properties in May 2006. TABLE 3 Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors May 2006 vs. April 2006 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix Apr-06 May-06 Percentage (000) (000) Change Total Internet Population 171,690 172,120 0% Politics 6,238 8,146 31% Jewelry/Luxury Goods/ Accessories 13,865 15,953 15% Job Search 14,534 16,234 12% Finance News/Research 44,450 48,802 10% Flowers/Gifts/Greetings 35,473 38,906 10% Ground/Cruise 10,009 10,932 9% Community 116,074 123,219 6% Career Resources 36,223 38,392 6% Personals 24,765 26,156 6% Financial Information/Advice 39,953 42,005 5% TABLE 4 Top 50 Properties May 2006 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix Unique Unique Rank Property Visitors Rank Property Visitors (000) (000) Total Internet Users 172,120 1 Yahoo! Sites 130,143 26 Bank of America 22,994 2 Time Warner Network 119,206 27 CareerBuilder LLC 22,339 3 MSN-Microsoft Sites 118,907 28 CBS Corporation 22,043 4 Google Sites 104,367 29 News Corp. Online 21,498 5 eBay 77,525 30 Disney Online 21,400 6 Ask Network 54,603 31 Vendare Media 20,725 7 MYSPACE.COM 51,441 32 Shopzilla.com Sites 20,282 8 Amazon Sites 48,278 33 Gannett Sites 20,137 9 New York Times Digital 40,342 34 Cox Enterprises Inc. 17,274 10 Verizon Communications 35 Comcast Corporation 16,840 Corporation 36,238 11 The Weather Channel 35,600 36 ESPN 16,175 12 Wikipedia Sites 31,485 37 Weatherbug Property 15,958 13 Apple Computer, Inc. 30,885 38 E.W. Scripps 15,820 14 Monster Worldwide 29,882 39 ORBITZ.COM 15,494 15 Viacom Online 29,512 40 iVillage.com: The Womens Network 15,194 16 CNET Networks 28,996 41 WebMD Health 15,149 17 Expedia Inc 27,595 42 Citysearch 15,103 18 United Online, Inc 26,687 43 Trip Network Inc. 15,007 19 Adobe Sites 26,445 44 WhitePages 14,915 20 Wal-Mart 25,930 45 Ticketmaster 14,900 21 AT&T, Inc. 25,920 46 ARTISTdirect Network 14,558 22 Lycos, Inc. 24,417 47 Sears Sites 14,196 23 Real.com Network 24,140 48 Infospace Network 14,112 24 Gorilla Nation Media 23,533 49 FACEBOOK.COM 14,069 25 Target Corporation 23,200 50 OVERSTOCK.COM 14,043 TABLE 5 Ad Focus Ranking May 2006 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix Unique Unique Visitors Reach Visitors Reach Rank Property (000) % Rank Property (000) % Total Internet Users 172,120 100% 1 Advertising.com** 142,508 83% 26 Business.com Network 27,847 16% 2 Yahoo! 127,450 74% 27 WEATHER.COM 25,911 15% 3 ValueClick** 123,810 72% 28 Lycos Network 24,288 14% 4 AOL Media Network 112,176 65% 29 WebMD Health Network 24,231 14% 5 Tribal Fusion** 104,367 61% 30 CareerBuilder Network 23,174 13% 6 Casale Media Network** 102,911 60% 31 Disney Online 21,400 12% 7 MSN 100,660 58% 32 Vendare Media 20,725 12% 8 Google 99,743 58% 33 CNN 20,672 12% 9 Vendare Media - TrafficMarketplace** 97,441 57% 34 EXPEDIA.COM* 19,036 11% 10 AOL 86,794 50% 35 SuperPages Network 18,504 11% 11 YAHOO.COM Home Page 83,783 49% 36 IMDB.COM 18,295 11% 12 24/7 Real Media** 82,691 48% 37 REAL.COM* 17,767 10% 13 Burst Media** 76,213 44% 38 ESPN 16,175 9% 14 EBAY.COM 68,510 40% 39 Travelocity All 15,700 9% 15 Tremor Network 68,494 40% 40 WeatherBug 15,668 9% 16 DRIVEpm** 63,801 37% 41 MONSTER.COM* 15,599 9% 17 Gorilla Nation Media Network 60,089 35% 42 ORBITZ.COM 15,494 9% 18 Blue Lithium** 56,185 33% 43 iVillage.com: The Womens Network 15,194 9% 19 Ask Network 54,603 32% 44 CITYSEARCH.COM* 14,907 9% 20 MSN.COM Home Page 54,565 32% 45 WhitePages Network 14,870 9% 21 MYSPACE.COM 51,441 30% 46 Mamma Media Solutions** 14,833 9% 22 Vibrant Media** 40,762 24% 47 CLASSMATES.COM 14,792 9% 23 AdDynamix.com** 39,443 23% 48 ARTISTdirect Network 14,558 8% 24 EBAY.COM Home Page 39,095 23% 49 BIZRATE.COM 14,169 8% 25 ABOUT.COM 35,326 21% 50 WHITEPAGES.COM 13,821 8% Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in May. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 74 percent of the more than 172 million Internet users in May. * Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities. ** Denotes an advertising network. About comScore Media Metrix

comScore Media Metrix, a division of comScore Networks, 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 continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its Media Metrix syndicated Internet ratings -- long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers -- while drawing upon comScore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. All comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About comScore Networks

comScore Networks provides unparalleled insight into consumer behavior and attitudes. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore explicit permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestle, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/ .

CONTACT: Andrew Lipsman, comScore Networks, Inc., +1-312-775-6510, or
press@comscore.com

Web site: http://www.comscore.com/