RESTON, Va. — comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released its monthly analysis of U.S. web activity at the top online properties for August 2011 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Millions of Americans prepared for the 2011-2012 school year by browsing Education Information and Career Training sites, and making purchases on Book sites. Between summer travel, seasonal weather and Hurricane Irene, visitors had plenty of reason to browse Weather sites, while information on allergies and flu shots drove traffic to Pharmacy sites.
“Online activity was largely driven by back-to-school in August as Americans made final preparations on all fronts for the upcoming academic year,” said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore. “Weather was also top of mind for many Americans, especially on the east coast with the onset of Hurricane Irene, and Pharmacy sites saw pickup in time with allergy and flu shot season.”
Web Receives A’s in Back-to-School Planning
Education Information represented the fastest growing category in August, growing 19 percent to 73.7 million visitors in July. Pearson Education ranked first in the category with 15.6 million visitors (up 35 percent), followed by HotChalk with 13.6 million (up 31 percent), ClassesUSA.com with 6.6 million (up 8 percent), About.com Education with 6.4 million (up 29 percent) and CoolMath.com Inc with 3.7 million visitors. College students checked out the reviews on their professors for the semester at RateMyProfessors.com, which jumped 45 percent to 3.2 million visitors, while Blackboard.com attracted 3 million visitors (up 64 percent).
Career Training and Education Sites also experienced a traffic spike in August, growing 12 percent to 12.3 million visitors. LiveCareer.com ranked as the category leader with 1.2 million visitors (up 23 percent), followed by FastWeb.com with 698,000 (up 13 percent) and Learn4Good.com with 559,000. AesopOnline.com nearly tripled its audience to 370,000 in August (up 192 percent, while Pryor.com rounded out the top five with 357,000 visitors (up 10 percent).
Book retailers represented another top-gaining category in August, growing 11 percent to 26.1 million visitors. Barnes & Noble ranked #1 in the category with 9.8 million visitors (up 19 percent), while BookSpan property saw 1.8 million. Chegg.com proved to be a great option for students on a budget, surging 273 percent to the #3 spot with nearly 1.7 million visitors. Borders Group, Inc. closely followed with nearly 1.7 million visitors, while AbeBooks took fifth with 1.6 million (up 56 percent).
Americans Feel Under the Weather with Hurricane Irene and Allergies
Between the onset of Hurricane Irene and seasonal August weather, Americans had reason to visit Weather sites during the month. The category grew 7 percent to an all-time high of nearly 100 million visitors, with The Weather Channel taking the top spot reaching 69 million visitors (up 15 percent). WeatherBug Property came in second with 24.4 million visitors, followed by Weather Underground with 13.3 million (up 24 percent), AccuWeather Sites with 11.6 million (up 34 percent) and Yahoo! Weather with 9.9 million.
Pharmacy sites experienced healthy growth spurt in August, although their visitors might not have been feeling so well. The category grew 8 percent to 5.4 million visitors, with QZMart earning the top with 533,000 visitors (up 4 percent). Express Scripts, Inc. drew 490,000 visitors (up 8 percent), followed by CareMark.com with 418,000 (up 3 percent), HY-VEE.com with 243,000 (up 17 percent) and MedCo.com with 227,000 (up 22 percent).
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites ranked as the #1 property in August with 183.4 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 177.5 million and Microsoft Sites with 177.2 million. ESPN, Answers.com Sites and Adobe Sites each jumped 5 positions, to rank consecutively at #24, #25 and #26. The Washington Post Company, CareerBuilder LLC and AT&T, Inc. newly appeared on the chart this month at #47, #49 and #50, respectively.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Google Ad Network led the August Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 93.4 percent of Americans online, followed by Yahoo! Network Plus (87.4 percent) and AOL Advertising (86.9 percent). AT&T AdWorks debuted on the ranking at #4 with an 83.9-percent reach, while ValueClick Networks rounded out the top five with at 82.8-percent.
Table 1
| comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)August 2011 vs. July 2011 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Total Unique Visitors (000) | |||||
| Jul-11 | Aug-11 | % Change | Rank by Unique Visitors | ||
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 215,054 | 216,006 | 0 | N/A | |
| NFL Internet Group | 11,203 | 21,474 | 92 | 71 | |
| FedEx | 9,032 | 14,610 | 62 | 111 | |
| Department of Commerce | 6,901 | 10,300 | 49 | 156 | |
| Pearson Education | 11,489 | 15,552 | 35 | 106 | |
| AccuWeather Sites | 8,693 | 11,610 | 34 | 142 | |
| IB Times | 5,092 | 6,653 | 31 | 232 | |
| HotChalk | 10,406 | 13,584 | 31 | 123 | |
| Directv Sites | 5,438 | 7,070 | 30 | 219 | |
| Liberty Media Holding Corporation | 16,755 | 21,675 | 29 | 68 | |
| Media General Sites | 5,781 | 7,314 | 27 | 215 | |
| *Ranking based on the top 250 properties in August 2011. Excludes entities whose growth was primarily due to tagging through unified digital audience measurement. | |||||
Table 2
| comScore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)August 2011 vs. July 2011
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||||
| Jul-11 | Aug-11 | % Change | ||
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 215,054 | 216,006 | 0 | |
| Education – Information | 61,778 | 73,730 | 19 | |
| Directories/Resources – Shipping | 27,711 | 32,361 | 17 | |
| Career Resources & Development – Training & Education | 11,044 | 12,348 | 12 | |
| Retail – Books | 23,449 | 26,126 | 11 | |
| Community – Family & Parenting | 96,392 | 105,050 | 9 | |
| Gambling – Lotto/Sweepstakes | 20,521 | 22,300 | 9 | |
| Community – Pets | 22,939 | 24,840 | 8 | |
| Health – Pharmacy | 5,041 | 5,438 | 8 | |
| Business/Finance – News/Research | 104,708 | 112,685 | 8 | |
| News/Information – Weather | 92,933 | 99,776 | 7 | |
Table 3
| comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) August 2011 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors(000) | Rank | Property | Unique Visitors(000) | ||
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 216,006 | ||||||
| 1 | Google Sites | 183,384 | 26 | Adobe Sites | 39,659 | ||
| 2 | Yahoo! Sites | 177,548 | 27 | Wal-Mart | 38,982 | ||
| 3 | Microsoft Sites | 177,223 | 28 | NetShelter Technology Media | 38,434 | ||
| 4 | Facebook.com | 162,387 | 29 | AT&T Interactive Network | 37,015 | ||
| 5 | AOL, Inc. | 109,239 | 30 | Technorati Media | 35,583 | ||
| 6 | Amazon Sites | 101,701 | 31 | LinkedIn.com | 35,333 | ||
| 7 | Turner Digital | 94,251 | 32 | Tribune Interactive | 34,979 | ||
| 8 | Ask Network | 88,430 | 33 | Twitter.com | 33,926 | ||
| 9 | Glam Media | 85,067 | 34 | Yelp.com | 33,509 | ||
| 10 | Viacom Digital | 82,589 | 35 | Myspace | 33,068 | ||
| 11 | Wikimedia Foundation Sites | 79,490 | 36 | Superpages.com Network | 31,500 | ||
| 12 | CBS Interactive | 77,968 | 37 | Disney Online | 31,215 | ||
| 13 | Apple Inc. | 74,997 | 38 | iVillage.com: The Womens Network | 30,183 | ||
| 14 | eBay | 73,710 | 39 | Netflix.com | 29,166 | ||
| 15 | Weather Channel, The | 68,979 | 40 | Break Media | 28,408 | ||
| 16 | New York Times Digital | 66,110 | 41 | Everyday Health | 28,389 | ||
| 17 | VEVO | 65,709 | 42 | WebMD Health | 27,498 | ||
| 18 | Demand Media | 59,385 | 43 | Fox News Digital | 27,479 | ||
| 19 | craigslist, inc. | 55,228 | 44 | Expedia Inc | 27,341 | ||
| 20 | Comcast Corporation | 51,550 | 45 | NBC Universal | 26,815 | ||
| 21 | WordPress | 45,823 | 46 | Target Corporation | 26,437 | ||
| 22 | Gannett Sites | 44,152 | 47 | The Washington Post Company | 25,882 | ||
| 23 | Federated Media Publishing | 42,614 | 48 | Verizon Communications Corporation | 25,127 | ||
| 24 | ESPN | 41,624 | 49 | CareerBuilder LLC | 25,013 | ||
| 25 | Answers.com Sites | 39,759 | 50 | AT&T, Inc. | 24,476 | ||
Table 4
| comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) August 2011 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | % Reach | Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | % Reach | ||
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 216,006 | 100.0 | |||||||
| 1 | Google Ad Network** | 201,812 | 93.4 | 26 | YOUTUBE.COM* | 125,350 | 58.0 | ||
| 2 | Yahoo! Network Plus** | 188,871 | 87.4 | 27 | ContextWeb** | 123,527 | 57.2 | ||
| 3 | AOL Advertising** | 187,804 | 86.9 | 28 | Undertone** | 112,265 | 52.0 | ||
| 4 | AT&T AdWorks (Demand Side Network)** | 181,307 | 83.9 | 29 | CPX Interactive** | 111,276 | 51.5 | ||
| 5 | ValueClick Networks** | 178,890 | 82.8 | 30 | AOL, Inc. | 109,239 | 50.6 | ||
| 6 | Yahoo! Sites | 177,548 | 82.2 | 31 | AdBlade Network** | 102,623 | 47.5 | ||
| 7 | 24/7 Real Media Global Web Alliance** | 176,881 | 81.9 | 32 | Bing | 102,267 | 47.3 | ||
| 8 | ShareThis | 175,491 | 81.2 | 33 | Meebo | 92,304 | 42.7 | ||
| 9 | 174,985 | 81.0 | 34 | Kontera** | 89,182 | 41.3 | |||
| 10 | Tribal Fusion** | 167,627 | 77.6 | 35 | Ask Network | 88,430 | 40.9 | ||
| 11 | Specific Media** | 163,736 | 75.8 | 36 | Glam Media | 85,067 | 39.4 | ||
| 12 | Collective Display** | 163,458 | 75.7 | 37 | Windows Live | 80,516 | 37.3 | ||
| 13 | FACEBOOK.COM | 162,387 | 75.2 | 38 | AMAZON.COM* | 75,101 | 34.8 | ||
| 14 | AdBrite** | 161,806 | 74.9 | 39 | Lotame Solutions** | 71,905 | 33.3 | ||
| 15 | Burst Media** | 154,255 | 71.4 | 40 | Brand.net Network** | 71,894 | 33.3 | ||
| 16 | Casale Media – MediaNet** | 152,726 | 70.7 | 41 | Weather Channel, The | 68,979 | 31.9 | ||
| 17 | interclick** | 149,732 | 69.3 | 42 | Monster Career Ad Network (CAN)** | 65,879 | 30.5 | ||
| 18 | Cox Digital Solutions – Network** | 147,809 | 68.4 | 43 | Dedicated Media** | 64,483 | 29.9 | ||
| 19 | AudienceScience** | 145,914 | 67.6 | 44 | Technorati Media** | 64,232 | 29.7 | ||
| 20 | Traffic Marketplace** | 145,017 | 67.1 | 45 | Goodway Group** | 60,366 | 27.9 | ||
| 21 | Microsoft Media Network US** | 140,965 | 65.3 | 46 | MTV Networks Music | 60,351 | 27.9 | ||
| 22 | FOX Audience Network** | 139,927 | 64.8 | 47 | Demand Media | 59,385 | 27.5 | ||
| 23 | Vibrant Media** | 138,096 | 63.9 | 48 | MediaWhiz** | 55,737 | 25.8 | ||
| 24 | Adconion Media Group** | 128,994 | 59.7 | 49 | RMM (formerly Red McCombs Media)** | 49,125 | 22.7 | ||
| 25 | MSN | 125,720 | 58.2 | 50 | CNN | 48,105 | 22.3 | ||
| Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in August. For instance, Yahoo! Sites was seen by 82.2 percent of the 216 million Internet users in August. * Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities. ** Denotes an advertising network. |
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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.
