Travel sites gain in June, Amtrak #1, sporting goods, toys, also hot summer sites

July 25th, 2011

Amtrak Travel sites continued to gain traffic in June as this extremely hot summer got underway, and sporting goods and toy sites also saw gains as parents sought ways to keep kids home from school occupied. So says the latest comScore Media Metrix report on top online properties for June 2011. High gas prices may also have something to do with some gains: Amtrak.com ranked number one among travel sites with 2.6 million visitors.

Travel Bug Quickly Spreads in June

An all-time high of 116 million people visited the Travel category in June, with half of the month’s top-gaining categories falling under this umbrella. Travel – Ground/Cruise sites saw the strongest gains, up 14 percent to nearly 13.5 million visitors. Amtrak.com ranked #1 with 2.6 million visitors (up 14 percent), followed by FirstGroup plc with 2.2 million (up 22 percent). Rivals staked out third and fourth place in the ranking, with Carnival Cruise Lines attracting 1.5 million visitors (up 9 percent) and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd with 1.1 million visitors (up 19 percent).

Hotel and Resort sites also saw a boost during the month with 34.8 million people visiting the category, up 13 percent versus May. Hilton Hotels took the top spot with 5.4 million visitors (up 24 percent), followed closely by Marriott with 5.4 million (up 18 percent). Choice Hotels International attracted 4.0 million visitors in June (up 40 percent), followed by InterContinental Hotels Group with 3.9 million and Wyndham Worldwide with 3.5 million, up 25 and 23 percent, respectively.

Online Travel Agent sites were popular among travelers looking to shop around for vacation deals and package discounts, rising 10 percent to 42 million visitors in June. Expedia Inc reached 28.1 million visitors during the month (up 15 percent), followed by Priceline.com Incorporated with 13.5 million (up 16 percent), Orbitz Worldwide with 10.9 million (up 10 percent), Fareportal Media Group with 7.5 million (up 1 percent) and Travelocity with 7.1 million (up 14 percent).

Americans Shop Sporting Goods and Toys for Summer Fun

Retail – Sports/Outdoor sites took the #2 spot on the top-growing categories list as Americans embraced the warm weather with outdoor activity. More than 32 million people visited the category during the month, up 14 percent overall, with eBay Sports U.S. earning the top ranking with 3.9 million visitors (up 18 percent). SportsAuthority.com came in second with 3.0 million visitors (up 94 percent), followed by DicksSportingGoods.com with 2.7 million visitors (up 15 percent). Cabelas Inc saw 2.4 million visitors (up 24 percent), while BassPro.com rounded out the top five with 1.7 million (up 20 percent).

ComScore says 15.7 million Americans visited a Toy site in June, as parents looked for ways to keep their kids entertained while out of school for the summer. Toysrus Sites led the category with 5.9 million visitors (up 16 percent), followed by The LEGO Group with 2.5 million (up 11 percent), Disney Shopping with 1.2 million (up 7 percent) and AmericanGirl.com with 890,000 (up 26 percent).

Top 50 Properties

Google Sites ranked as the #1 property in June with 182.5 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 178.4 million and Microsoft Sites with 173.6 million. Amazon Sites jumped 1 position to rank #6 with 95.8 million visitors, Disney Online jumped 8 positions to #32 (32.6 million visitors), and Twitter.com jumped 9 positions to #37 (30.6 million visitors). Expedia Inc appeared in the top 50 ranking at #39 (28.1 million visitors).

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

Google Ad Network led the June Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 92.8 percent of Americans online, followed by Yahoo! Network Plus (86.3 percent), AOL Advertising (85.9 percent), Yahoo! Sites (83.2 percent) and Google (82.2)

Table 1
*comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)June 2011 vs. May 2011 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University LocationsSource: comScore Media Metrix**
	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	May-11	Jun-11	% Change	Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience	216,250	214,474	-1	N/A
ABC Family	1,869	6,627	255	226
American Express	8,058	11,323	41	134
Dish Network Corporation	6,067	8,086	33	188
The Mozilla Organization	13,135	16,351	24	92
ImageShack	7,957	9,761	23	158
Groupon	12,032	14,473	20	107
EA Online	13,224	15,884	20	94
Zynga.com	5,912	7,066	20	208
UrbanDictionary.com	5,235	6,190	18	240
WildTangent Media	17,063	20,021	17	67
Ranking based on the top 250 properties in Jun e 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.)June 2011 vs. May 2011Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	May-11	Jun-11	% Change
Total Internet : Total Audience	216,250	214,474	-1
Community – Pets	19,123	22,061	15
Retail – Sports/Outdoor	28,719	32,665	14
Travel – Ground/Cruise	11,852	13,466	14
Travel – Hotels/Resorts	30,825	34,774	13
Travel – Transactions	3,806	4,258	12
Retail – Toys	14,077	15,737	12
Services – Incentives	21,248	23,653	11
Travel – Online Travel Agents	38,214	41,996	10
Travel – Car Rental	6,343	6,958	10
Health – Pharmacy	4,800	5,244	9

Table 3
comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) June 2011 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors(000)	Rank	Property	Unique Visitors(000)
	Total Internet : Total Audience	214,474
1	Google Sites	182,537	26	Technorati Media	36,281
2	Yahoo! Sites	178,383	27	ESPN	36,204
3	Microsoft Sites	173,562	28	Wal-Mart	35,807
4	Facebook.com	160,879	29	LinkedIn.com	33,904
5	AOL, Inc.	110,447	30	Tribune Interactive	33,556
6	Amazon Sites	95,771	31	Adobe Sites	33,214
7	Turner Digital	93,382	32	Disney Online	32,553
8	Glam Media	85,987	33	AT&T Interactive Network	32,178
9	Ask Network	84,810	34	Yelp.com	31,276
10	Viacom Digital	81,645	35	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	30,869
11	CBS Interactive	73,981	36	Superpages.com Network	30,767
12	Apple Inc.	73,188	37	Twitter.com	30,649
13	Wikimedia Foundation Sites	71,804	38	WordPress	28,892
14	VEVO	66,396	39	Expedia Inc	28,150
15	eBay	65,474	40	Netflix.com	27,751
16	New York Times Digital	62,883	41	NBC Universal	27,676
17	Demand Media	60,037	42	Break Media	27,504
18	craigslist, inc.	53,472	43	WeatherBug Property	26,811
19	Comcast Corporation	53,262	44	Everyday Health	26,797
20	Fox Interactive Media	47,987	45	WebMD Health	24,762
21	Answers.com Sites	41,691	46	Bank of America	24,705
22	Federated Media Publishing	41,515	47	Verizon Communications Corporation	23,979
23	Gannett Sites	40,706	48	Target Corporation	23,810
24	Weather Channel, The	40,118	49	IGN Entertainment	23,613
25	NetShelter Technology Media	36,536	50	Cox Enterprises Inc.	23,482

Table 4
comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) June 2011 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors(000)	% Reach	Rank	Property	Unique Visitors(000)	% Reach
	Total Internet : Total Audience	214,474	100.0
1	Google Ad Network**	198,995	92.8	26	ContextWeb**	111,071	51.8
2	Yahoo! Network Plus**	185,148	86.3	27	AOL, Inc.	110,447	51.5
3	AOL Advertising**	184,132	85.9	28	CPX Interactive**	107,415	50.1
4	Yahoo! Sites	178,383	83.2	29	Undertone**	104,202	48.6
5	Google	176,235	82.2	30	Bing	97,908	45.7
6	ValueClick Networks**	172,212	80.3	31	AdBlade Network**	90,701	42.3
7	ShareThis	167,772	78.2	32	Kontera**	89,565	41.8
8	24/7 Real Media Global Web Alliance**	167,563	78.1	33	Glam Media	85,987	40.1
9	Specific Media (unified)**	162,548	75.8	34	Meebo	85,494	39.9
10	Facebook.com	160,879	75.0	35	Ask Network	84,810	39.5
11	Tribal Fusion**	160,443	74.8	36	Windows Live	79,077	36.9
12	AdBrite**	159,851	74.5	37	Monster Career Ad Network (CAN)**	77,941	36.3
13	Collective Display**	159,429	74.3	38	Lotame Solutions**	71,489	33.3
14	Burst Media**	147,678	68.9	39	Amazon.com	66,789	31.1
15	Cox Digital Solutions – Network**	143,711	67.0	40	Demand Media	60,037	28.0
16	AudienceScience**	142,551	66.5	41	MediaWhiz**	59,893	27.9
17	interclick**	141,458	66.0	42	Goodway Group**	59,769	27.9
18	Microsoft Media Network US**	141,315	65.9	43	MTV Networks Music	58,301	27.2
19	Traffic Marketplace**	140,456	65.5	44	Technorati Media**	57,851	27.0
20	FOX Audience Network**	136,902	63.8	45	RMM (formerly Red McCombs Media)**	54,004	25.2
21	Casale Media – MediaNet**	136,640	63.7	46	Brand.net Network**	52,138	24.3
22	Vibrant Media**	134,556	62.7	47	Redux Media Network**	44,787	20.9
23	Adconion Media Group**	126,258	58.9	48	Federated Media Network**	43,772	20.4
24	MSN	121,919	56.8	49	CNN	43,445	20.3
25	YouTube.com*	121,422	56.6	50	Ybrant Global Network**	43,225	20.2
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in June. For instance, Yahoo! Sites was seen by 83.2 percent of the 214 million Internet users in June. * Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities. ** Denotes an advertising network.

Travel sites gain in June, Amtrak #1, sporting goods, toys, also hot summer sites

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