Tax sites rapidly grew in January as millions of Americans looked to begin preparing to file, according to comScore, the digital measurement firm. Many Americans also booked travel to escape the winter doldrums, while others resolved to begin the new year by researching new careers and education programs.
“In January, the average U.S. Internet user spent a record 36 hours online, reflecting the growing importance of digital media to Americans’ daily lives,” said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore.
“Among the biggest category gainers in this heavy month of Internet usage were Travel and Career sites, which posted double-digit gains, and of course Tax sites as the non-procrastinators among us decided to get an early jump on getting their refunds.”
Winter Blues Melt at Travel Sites
Several Travel subcategories were among the top-gainers in January, including Transaction sites which grew 28 percent to 3.7 million visitors. TravelPN.com led the category with 798,000 visitors (up 11 percent), followed by Viator.com with 642,000 (up 9 percent), WWTE.com with 442,000 (up 86 percent) and OneTime.com with 278,000 (up 48 percent).
Car Rental sites jumped 22 percent to 6.2 million visitors during the month, led by Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company with 3.2 million visitors (up 14 percent). Avis Budget Group ranked second with nearly 2 million visitors (up 19 percent), followed by Hertz with 1.3 million (up 21 percent), CarRentals.com with 793,000 (up 30 percent) and Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. with 790,000 (up 27 percent).
A trip wouldn’t be complete without lodging, so it is not a surprise that Hotels/Resorts also ranked among the fastest-growing Travel sites. The category attracted 33.2 million visitors in January, representing an 18-percent increase.
Marriott secured the #1 position in the category with 5.1 million visitors (up 30 percent), followed by Disney Parks & Travel with 4.8 million (up 36 percent), Hilton Hotels with 4.6 million (up 25 percent) and Expedia Hotels with 3.3 million.
Career-Minded Americans Research Options Online
As the new year began, Americans turned their focus to career services and education. Traffic to Job Search sites grew 27 percent in January to 24.2 million visitors. Indeed.com Job Search ranked as the category leader with 13.7 million visitors (up 33 percent), followed by CareerBuilder.com Job Search with 9.8 million (up 27 percent), Monster.com Job Search with 5 million (up 28 percent) and SimplyHired.com with 3.5 million (up 42 percent).
Training and Education sites also gained traction, with a sizeable increase of 23 percent to 14.7 million visitors. LiveCareer.com topped the list with 1.2 million visitors (up 58 percent), followed by AesopOnline.com with 940,000 (up 44 percent), FastWeb.com with 736,000 (up 30 percent) and Learn4Good.com with 599,000.
Tax Sites Spike as Season Begins
Visitation to Tax sites swelled in January as millions decided to get a jump on filing and hopefully getting a refund check from Uncle Sam. More than 30.7 million Americans visited a Tax site in January, up 359 percent to rank as the fastest growing category.
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites ranked as the #1 property in January with 187.4 million visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites with 179.2 million and Yahoo! Sites with 177.2 million. LinkedIn.com jumped 8 positions to rank #29 with 36.8 million visitors, while Everyday Health, which helped many fulfill their New Year’s resolutions to be healthier, leapt 10 positions to #38.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Google Ad Network led the January Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 92.9 percent of Americans online, followed by AOL Advertising (85 percent), Yahoo! Network Plus (84.8 percent), ShareThis (82.4 percent) and AT&T AdWorks (82.3 percent).
Table 1
| comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)January 2012 vs. December 2011
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
||||
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||||
| Dec-11 | Jan-12 | % Change | Rank by Unique Visitors |
|
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 220,439 | 220,154 | 0 | N/A |
| IRS.GOV | 5,044 | 16,259 | 222 | 107 |
| ED.GOV | 5,201 | 9,160 | 76 | 185 |
| Pinterest.com | 7,516 | 11,716 | 56 | 148 |
| Travelocity | 4,869 | 6,957 | 43 | 241 |
| Kayak.com Network | 5,851 | 8,087 | 38 | 210 |
| ChaCha.com | 9,151 | 12,279 | 34 | 138 |
| Orbitz Worldwide | 8,965 | 11,868 | 32 | 141 |
| Info.com | 5,883 | 7,740 | 32 | 219 |
| Dominion Enterprises | 9,622 | 12,650 | 31 | 131 |
| Indeed | 12,928 | 16,985 | 31 | 103 |
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in January 2012. 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.)January 2012 vs. December 2011
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
|||
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | |||
| Dec-11 | Jan-12 | % Change | |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 220,439 | 220,154 | 0 |
| Business/Finance – Taxes | 6,685 | 30,715 | 359 |
| Retail – Computer Software | 41,616 | 54,081 | 30 |
| Travel – Transactions | 2,913 | 3,730 | 28 |
| Career Services & Development – Job Search | 19,098 | 24,209 | 27 |
| Career Services & Development – Training and Education | 11,979 | 14,679 | 23 |
| Travel – Car Rental | 5,079 | 6,197 | 22 |
| Travel – Hotels/Resorts | 28,035 | 33,213 | 18 |
| Career Services & Development – Career Resources | 46,145 | 54,398 | 18 |
| Entertainment – News | 100,121 | 116,229 | 16 |
| Travel – Ground/Cruise | 12,164 | 14,097 | 16 |
Table 3
| comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)January 2012
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 | 220,154 | |||||
| 1 | Google Sites | 187,368 | 26 | Twitter.com | 38,410 | |
| 2 | Microsoft Sites | 179,220 | 27 | ESPN | 38,296 | |
| 3 | Yahoo! Sites | 177,249 | 28 | Technorati Media | 38,227 | |
| 4 | Facebook.com | 163,505 | 29 | LinkedIn.com | 36,848 | |
| 5 | Amazon Sites | 109,997 | 30 | NetShelter Technology Media | 34,954 | |
| 6 | AOL, Inc. | 107,085 | 31 | Tribune Interactive | 34,517 | |
| 7 | Ask Network | 93,954 | 32 | AT&T Interactive Network | 33,780 | |
| 8 | Glam Media | 90,895 | 33 | Disney Online | 32,708 | |
| 9 | Wikimedia Foundation Sites | 88,527 | 34 | iVillage.com: The Womens Network | 31,942 | |
| 10 | Turner Digital | 84,041 | 35 | Alloy Digital Network | 30,782 | |
| 11 | CBS Interactive | 81,631 | 36 | Yelp.com | 30,668 | |
| 12 | Apple Inc. | 81,536 | 37 | Fox News Digital Network | 30,283 | |
| 13 | New York Times Digital | 80,161 | 38 | Everyday Health | 30,208 | |
| 14 | Viacom Digital | 76,254 | 39 | Netflix.com | 29,777 | |
| 15 | eBay | 71,554 | 40 | Superpages.com Network | 28,971 | |
| 16 | Federated Media Publishing | 70,260 | 41 | Break Media | 28,252 | |
| 17 | Demand Media | 61,344 | 42 | The Washington Post Company | 27,602 | |
| 18 | VEVO | 59,000 | 43 | Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. | 27,580 | |
| 19 | Weather Channel, The | 58,643 | 44 | Verizon Communications Corporation | 26,763 | |
| 20 | craigslist, inc. | 53,431 | 45 | NBC Universal | 26,546 | |
| 21 | Comcast Corporation | 52,890 | 46 | Target Corporation | 26,142 | |
| 22 | Gannett Sites | 46,620 | 47 | Cox Enterprises Inc. | 25,529 | |
| 23 | Answers.com Sites | 44,377 | 48 | Discovery Digital Media Sites | 25,265 | |
| 24 | Wal-Mart | 41,462 | 49 | Internet Brands, Inc. | 25,263 | |
| 25 | Adobe Sites | 41,451 | 50 | Myspace | 25,124 | |
Table 4
| comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)January 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 | 220,154 | 100.0 | ||||||
| 1 | Google Ad Network** | 204,468 | 92.9 | 26 | CPX Interactive** | 124,089 | 56.4 | |
| 2 | AOL Advertising** | 187,109 | 85.0 | 27 | Adconion Media Group** | 120,144 | 54.6 | |
| 3 | Yahoo! Network Plus** | 186,587 | 84.8 | 28 | Undertone** | 118,198 | 53.7 | |
| 4 | ShareThis | 181,372 | 82.4 | 29 | Traffic Marketplace** | 116,903 | 53.1 | |
| 5 | AT&T AdWorks** | 181,247 | 82.3 | 30 | AOL, Inc. | 107,085 | 48.6 | |
| 6 | 179,685 | 81.6 | 31 | Meebo | 98,130 | 44.6 | ||
| 7 | Yahoo! Sites | 177,249 | 80.5 | 32 | Technorati Media** | 97,287 | 44.2 | |
| 8 | ValueClick Networks** | 176,229 | 80.0 | 33 | Bing | 95,661 | 43.5 | |
| 9 | 24/7 Real Media Global Web Alliance** | 176,227 | 80.0 | 34 | Smowtion Ad Network** | 95,226 | 43.3 | |
| 10 | Microsoft Media Network US** | 174,276 | 79.2 | 35 | Ask Network | 93,954 | 42.7 | |
| 11 | Tribal Fusion** | 170,715 | 77.5 | 36 | Glam Media | 90,895 | 41.3 | |
| 12 | Facebook.com | 163,505 | 74.3 | 37 | Amazon.com* | 90,774 | 41.2 | |
| 13 | Casale Media – MediaNet** | 162,269 | 73.7 | 38 | Rocket Fuel** | 89,373 | 40.6 | |
| 14 | AdBrite** | 162,088 | 73.6 | 39 | Wikipedia.org | 88,224 | 40.1 | |
| 15 | PulsePoint** | 154,100 | 70.0 | 40 | Kontera** | 86,005 | 39.1 | |
| 16 | Specific Media** | 153,336 | 69.6 | 41 | Monster Career Ad Network (CAN)** | 78,243 | 35.5 | |
| 17 | Collective Display** | 151,427 | 68.8 | 42 | Windows Live | 74,579 | 33.9 | |
| 18 | AudienceScience** | 149,336 | 67.8 | 43 | Federated Media Publishing | 70,260 | 31.9 | |
| 19 | Cox Digital Solutions – Network** | 146,632 | 66.6 | 44 | Dedicated Media** | 67,243 | 30.5 | |
| 20 | Vibrant Media** | 143,793 | 65.3 | 45 | About | 62,480 | 28.4 | |
| 21 | interclick** | 139,508 | 63.4 | 46 | Demand Media | 61,344 | 27.9 | |
| 22 | Burst Media** | 133,900 | 60.8 | 47 | Weather Channel, The | 58,643 | 26.6 | |
| 23 | YouTube.com* | 126,279 | 57.4 | 48 | MTV Networks Music | 53,932 | 24.5 | |
| 24 | MSN | 125,561 | 57.0 | 49 | Redux Media Network** | 52,684 | 23.9 | |
| 25 | AdBlade Network** | 125,421 | 57.0 | 50 | Apple.com | 49,689 | 22.6 | |
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in January. For instance, Yahoo! Sites was seen by 80.1 percent of the 220 million Internet users in January.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes an advertising network.
