Americans Kick Off the Year Online with Taxes, Diets and Vacations on Their Minds

Comscore MMX Releases January Web Rankings and Analysis

RESTON, Va., Feb. 21, 2005 – Comscore MMX today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories. With 2005 upon them, Americans turned to tax, diet, careers and travel sites to begin planning the year ahead.

“January’s annual rituals, including the kickoff of tax season, spring break vacation planning and the search for the perfect diet, translated to substantial gains for category leaders,” said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of Comscore MMX. “The beginning of the president’s second term provided the material for another JibJab film, which landed the site in the top gaining properties ranking for the third time in the past 12 months.”

W-2 Forms Hit Mailboxes and Americans Hit the Web
With W-2 forms landing in mailboxes across the country, Americans turned to the Web to prepare and file their tax returns. The Taxes category drew the top spot on this month’s ranking of the top gaining properties, with an increase of 235 percent compared to December (see table 2). Nearly 21 million Internet users visited tax sites last month, an increase of 12 percent compared to January 2004.

The top gaining property in January was HRBlock.com, which drew 4.1 million visitors, an increase of 636 percent compared to December (see table 1). IRS.gov also saw a triple digit increase (238 percent), attracting 11 million visitors in January. An 840-percent increase in traffic to TurboTax.com drove Intuit up 68 percent, making it January’s ninth largest gaining property.

Diet and Careers Sites Help Americans Make Good on New Year’s Resolutions
With December’s indulgences behind them and warmer weather approaching, millions of Americans turned to diet sites to help them shed unwanted pounds. Traffic to eDiets more than doubled between December and January. Nearly 7.9 million people visited the site in January, an increase of 126 percent. Weight Watchers International was the resource of choice for 4.3 million Americans, an increase of 77 percent from December.

While some Americans fulfilled their New Year’s resolutions by starting a diet, for others, a career move was in order. Three Career Services subcategories made this month’s ranking of the top gaining categories. The Job Search subcategory grew 32 percent in January to 16.2 million visitors. Monster.com Job Search, CareerBuilder.com Job Search and Yahoo! HotJobs Job Search all posted double-digit increases in January.

CareerBuilder traffic increased by 78 percent through seasonality and promotional activity, landing it in the number 6 spot on this month’s top gaining properties ranking and contributing to a 29-percent increase in visitors to the Career Resources subcategory. Double-digit traffic increases at Fastweb, a scholarship search site owned by Monster.com, and EducationDirect, a distance learning site owned by the Thomson Corporation, joined forces to boost the Training and Education subcategory up by 20 percent – enough to secure the last spot on this month’s top gaining category ranking.

Millions Turn to the Web to Plan and Book Spring and Summer Travel
A wide range of travel merchants and resources saw seasonal increases in January as consumers began the process of planning spring and summer vacations. Four of January’s top ten gaining categories were Travel subcategories. The Ground/Cruise subcategory led the way, posting a 48 percent increase between December and January. VacationsToGo.com, a discount cruise merchant and the category’s largest site, jumped 99 percent to finish at 3.5 million visitors in January. Carnival.com, RoyalCaribbean.com and Princess.com posted increases of 105, 79 and 67 percent respectively.

The top 20 sites in the Hotels/Resorts category all posted double-digit increases between December and January, boosting category traffic by 22 percent. Even more impressive, the category is up 32 percent compared to last January, a result of hotel suppliers’ continued efforts to become direct booking destinations for consumers. The Airlines category also saw an impressive pickup in traffic in January, jumping 22 percent. Traffic at Delta Airlines soared 80 percent, driven by the launch of its new SimpliFares fare structure. United Airlines posted a 53-percent jump in site traffic, as it faced a blizzard of activity among travelers seeking information and assistance in the face of harsh winter weather. Both Delta and United qualified for the month’s top gaining properties ranking as a result of these sharp increases.

Top 50 Properties
CareerBuilder LLC moved 37 spots up the ladder to 25th place in January’s Top 50 Properties, through online marketing and promotion, as well as its relationships with AOL and MSN. A new version of its Adobe Reader product drove a 37-percent increase in visitors to Adobe Sites, which was number 61 in December and finished at number 36 in January. Among sites in both December and January’s Top 50 Properties, Apple Computer Inc. had the largest jump, moving up 21 spots to number 27. The site benefited from hundreds of thousands of consumers installing the iTunes software packaged with the iPod they received in December as well as 5.5 million visitors to a widely circulated Mac homepage featuring before and after pictures of areas affected by the Asian tsunami. Finally, various promotions on HGTV.com drove a traffic increase of over 3 million visitors at E.W. Scripps, corresponding to a 12-spot gain to number 34.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Advertising.com and Yahoo! claimed the top 2 spots in the Ad Focus ranking, as they have in every month since May 2004 (see table 4). The rest of the top 10 Ad Focus entities stayed the same in January as in December, except for Tribal Fusion, which moved 1 spot to claim the number 10 ranking.

CareerBuilder Network gained 12 spots to move to January’s number 28. Increased news coverage of volatile weather and the mudslides in California boosted MSNBC 3 spots to finish at number 24 in January's ad focus ranking. Finally, the sale of U2 concert and Major League Baseball tickets buoyed Ticketmaster.com 6 places to the final spot in the top 50.

TABLE 1

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in January

TABLE 2

TABLE 3

TABLE 4

**Indicates that the entity is an advertising network.

About Comscore MMX
Comscore MMX, a division of Comscore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report – with unmatched accuracy - 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 MMX continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its MMX 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 MMX 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 patent-pending 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, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Nestlé, Bank of America, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, GlaxoSmithKline and Orbitz. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

Press
Bill Daddi
Daddi Brand Communications
646-370-1341
press@comscore.com