ComScore just released Internet figures and activity this week.
The 2007 U.S. Internet Year in Review highlighting the
major trends in U.S. Internet activity, finds that that top gaining properties
and site categories featured some of the top Internet brands, including Google,
Facebook, Wikipedia and Craigslist.
- Social networking giant Facebook.com reaped the benefits of opening
registration to all users, jumping 81 percent versus December 2006 to 34.7
million visitors in December 2007
- Wikipedia Sites gained 34 percent to reach nearly 52 million visitors,
continuing its reign as the Web's most popular reference hub
- Craigslist.org jumped 74 percent to 24.5 million visitors
- AT&T grew 27 percent to 30.2 million visitors boosted by its exclusive
deal with Apple as carrier for the iPhone
- Yellow Book Network jumped 137-percent to 10.4 million visitors
Several of the top-gaining properties were driven by the acquisition of Web
entities including, but not limited to, the following:
- Everyday Health gained 349 percent driven by its acquisition of Drugs.com
and other sites
- Women's category leader, Glam Media, grew 213 percent during the year, due
in large part to the addition of several new entities, including Quality Health
Network, MyYearbook.com, and LifeScript.com, among others
- Yellow Book Network grew 137-percent to 10.4 million visitors, as visitation
to Yellowbook.com sites tripled (up 207 percent to 4.6 million visitors)
- Village.com: The Women's Network, gained 27 percent with the addition of
Sugar Publishing, MakeoverSolutions.com, and iWin.com, among others.
- Demand Media added numerous entities under its Demand Media Knowledge and
Demand Media Games media titles, which contributed to its 149-percent growth
- OfficeMax's 199-percent gain was driven primarily by a December 2007 surge
in visitation to its popular viral holiday greetings site ElfYouself.com
|
Top 20 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors
December 2007 vs. December 2006 (U.S. Total U.S. Home, Work and
University Internet Users) |
|
|
Total Unique Visitors (000) |
% Change |
|
|
Dec-06 |
Dec-07 |
|
Total U.S. Internet Audience |
174,199 |
183,619 |
5 |
|
Everyday Health |
2,690 |
12,073 |
349 |
|
Glam Media |
7,994 |
25,028 |
213 |
|
OfficeMax |
5,130 |
15,339 |
199 |
|
Demand Media |
5,999 |
14,958 |
149 |
|
Yellow Book Network |
4,386 |
10,388 |
137 |
|
ValueClick Sites |
6,339 |
13,013 |
105 |
|
Facebook.com |
19,105 |
34,658 |
81 |
|
WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites |
8,714 |
15,474 |
78 |
|
Craigslist.org |
14,075 |
24,468 |
74 |
|
Experian Interactive |
8,054 |
12,500 |
55 |
|
Yellowpages.com Network |
16,168 |
24,453 |
51 |
|
AmericanGreetings Property |
11,982 |
18,102 |
51 |
|
Comcast Corporation |
18,716 |
26,445 |
41 |
|
UGO |
8,450 |
11,912 |
41 |
|
The Mozilla Organization |
,948 |
15,267 |
39 |
|
Answers.com Sites |
10,707 |
14,899 |
39 |
|
Wikipedia Sites |
38,585 |
51,851 |
34 |
|
iVillage.com: The Womens Network |
13,545 |
17,234 |
27 |
|
AT&T, Inc. |
23,833 |
30,212 |
27 |
|
Internet Broadcasting Systems |
9,894 |
12,394 |
25 |
|
Source: comScore Media Metrix |
The top-gaining site categories in 2007 reflected trends in both the online
and offline worlds. The politics category grabbed the top position, gaining 35
percent, as the 2008 presidential election and primary season kicked into high
gear. Women's community sites also jumped 35 percent. With the ever-increasing
coverage of celebrity news, from Britney Spears' meltdowns to Anna Nicole
Smith's death, entertainment news sites jumped 32 percent. Online classifieds
had a strong 2007 growing 31 percent versus year ago, as it continued to impinge
on traditional news media's classified revenues.
|
Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors
December 2007 vs. December 2006 (Total U.S. Home, Work and
University Internet Users) |
|
|
Total Unique Visitors (000) |
|
|
|
Dec-06 |
Dec-07 |
% Change |
|
Total U.S. Internet Audience |
174,199 |
183,619 |
5 |
|
Politics |
6,192 |
8,384 |
35 |
|
Community - Women |
51,632 |
69,854 |
35 |
|
Entertainment - News |
37,093 |
49,023 |
32 |
|
Classifieds |
31,867 |
41,688 |
31 |
|
Career - Training and Education |
7,865 |
10,279 |
31 |
|
Gay/Lesbian |
1,843 |
2,367 |
28 |
|
Retail - Consumer Goods |
28,829 |
35,936 |
25 |
|
Finance - News/Research |
43,317 |
52,064 |
20 |
|
Teens |
23,313 |
27,979 |
20 |
|
Religion |
19,101 |
22,886 |
20 |
|
Source: comScore Media Metrix |
In 2007, searches at the five major core search engines increased 15 percent
to 9.6 billion searches. Google Sites led, up more than 30 percent from the
previous year. Yahoo! Sites ranked second, followed by Microsoft Sites, Time
Warner Network, and Ask Network.
|
Core Search Report December 2007 vs. December 2006
(Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations) |
|
Core Search Entity |
Search Queries (MM) |
Percent Change Dec-07 vs. Dec-06 |
|
Dec-06 |
Dec-07 |
|
Total Core Search |
8,348 |
9,636 |
15% |
|
Google Sites |
4,317 |
5,629 |
30% |
|
Yahoo! Sites |
2,300 |
2,211 |
-4% |
|
Microsoft Sites |
871 |
940 |
8% |
|
Time Warner Network |
465 |
442 |
-5% |
|
Ask Network |
396 |
415 |
5% |
|
Source: comScore qSearch 2.0 (Based on the five major search engines
including partner searches and cross-channel
searches) |
More than 113 billion core searches were conducted in the U.S. during all of
2007, with Google Sites accounting for nearly 64 billion, representing a 56
percent share of the market.
