comScore Media Metrix Releases Top 50 Web Rankings for August

comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties for August 2007. Education-related sites had a strong presence in this month's rankings as schools and universities across the country began another academic year. August also saw traffic increases to lotto/sweepstakes sites as lottery jackpots reached near record highs. Humor sites gained on the strength of Comedy Central's spike in traffic, and sports/outdoor retail sites grew in anticipation of the fall sports season.

With students and teachers heading back to the classroom in late August, education sites experienced strong growth for the month. The training and education category grew 15 percent to more than 12 million visitors, making it the top gaining category for the month. College resource site Fastweb led the category with 2.5 million visitors (up 13 percent), followed by The College Board with nearly 1.9 million visitors (up 12 percent) and Nellnet, Inc., an education planning and financing company, with 1.4 million visitors (up 11 percent). The education information category increased 8 percent to more than 63 million visitors, as Dictionary.com Sites led the category with 11.8 million visitors, followed by Answers.com (9.3 million visitors) and Pearson Education (8.6 million visitors).

With the beginning of fall sports and football season, traffic to retail sports/outdoors sites increased 7 percent to more than 29 million visitors. Foot Locker Sites experienced a 15-percent gain to 4.6 million visitors to lead the category, followed by eBay Sports U.S. with 4 million visitors and DicksSportingGoods.com with 2.6 million visitors. NFL Internet Group, which includes the official NFL team sites, surged 78 percent to more than 14 million visitors, making it one of top gaining properties in August.

Multi-state lotteries Mega Millions and Powerball both reached massive jackpots in August causing lotto/sweepstakes sites to rise 8 percent to more than 31 million visitors for the month. Powerball.com surged to 2.3 million visitors (up 123 percent), while Megamillions.com saw its traffic swell to 1.1 million (up 100 percent).

The humor category grew 8 percent in August, reaching more than 30 million Americans. The increase was largely propelled by gains at Comedy Central from its "Indecision 2008" coverage. National Lampoon Humor Network led the category with 5.6 million visitors, followed by Comedy Central with nearly 5 million visitors (up 105 percent) and Jokeroo Entertainment Inc. with nearly 3 million visitors (up 37 percent).

The top 10 properties remained unchanged in August, as Yahoo! Sites topped the ranking with more than 135 million visitors. CBS Corporation experienced a 16-percent gain, lifting it 6 spots to number 24. Comcast Corporation also experienced a sizable jump, moving up seven positions to number 26 in the ranking with more than 25 million visitors. United Online enjoyed a four-position gain, drawing more than 26 million unique visitors in August.

In August, Advertising.com remained atop the Ad Focus Ranking, reaching 89 percent of the more than 181 million Americans online. Specific Media and Google both moved up within the top ten, to numbers six and seven, respectively. Adconion media group jumped seven spots to number 21, reaching 43 percent of the U.S. online population, a 7-percent increase from July. Interclick also continued its climb in the rankings, gaining four spots to number 18. Finally, Amazon.com and Walmart.com entered the ranking in August at positions 37 and 43, respectively.

Source: comScore