For the past few years the federal
government has been encouraging people to file their taxes online,
but it has not been an easy sell, even with the far greater
convenience it offers. People have been reluctant to trust their
most intimate financial affairs to the internet.
But that's changing, and quickly it appears. This tax
season, more Americans than not will file their federal tax returns
online.
The pattern is much like that in financial services. People
first went online to gather information, then began acting on that
information, using the internet for online banking and stock
trading.
Initially, taxpayers turned to the web to research tax
issues, but as their comfort level has grown, more and more are
choosing to file their tax returns online. The
IRS reports that in 2002 46.9 million people filed online, 35.6
percent of all filers. That number rose to 52.9 million in 2003, or
40 percent, and last year it rose again to 61.5 million, or 47
percent.
So far this year, about 42.7 million have filed online,
and the IRS thinks that the final number will top 50 percent.
What's interesting is that the pace of growth has been
so strong even though users cannot file directly with the IRS but
must do so through a third party, such as TurboTax.
Meanwhile, overall traffic to tax
sites continues to rise. In February, traffic to IRS.gov stood at
14.3 million, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, only up slightly
from a year earlier, when 14.07 million users logged on. But that's
up smartly from 10.1 million in February 2003 and 8.09 million in
February 2002.
In February, TurboTax pulled away as the
top site for filing taxes. During February 2004, traffic to
TurboTax.com was at 4.87 million visitors, slightly more than
competitor HRBlock.com’s 4.49 million.
But this February TuboTax.com jumped 39.6 percent to
6.80 million visitors, while archrival HRBlock.com fell 27.4
percent, to 3.26 million visitors.
The sites TaxCut.com, IRS.com (not to be confused with
IRS.gov) and TaxAct.com all offer similar services as TurboTax and
HRBlock.com, but those sites attract only a fraction of the
visitors, and all three are down this year versus last.
TaxAct.com attracted 1.47 million visitors in February,
down 2.6 percent versus a year earlier. TaxCut.com attracted 1.18
million, down 15.9 percent, and IRS.com, which is powered by
H&R Block, drew 1.05 million, down 39.6 percent.
Elsewhere on the internet, March Madness has hit and
ESPN.com is leading the way online, according to internet tracking
company Hitwise.
ESPN.com’s Men’s College Basketball site claimed
33.14 percent of the market share of visits to Hitwise’s March
Madness category of sites during the week ending March 12, far and
away the online leader.
Yahoo! Sports Men’s College Basketball (20.64
percent), CBS Sportsline College Basketball (11.33 percent), ESPN
Fantasy Games (7.57 percent) and Foxsports College Basketball (6.33
percent) made up the rest of Hitwise’s top five March Madness
sites.
On the charts, Microsoft, Time Warner, Yahoo,
Google and eBay were once again the top five parent companies during
the week ending March 13, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, with the
U.S. government falling to No. 6. Yahoo, MSN, Microsoft, AOL and
Google remained the top five brands.
Once again, average usage stayed even at 16
visits per person and 34 domains visited per person, but PC time per
person fell 0.29 percent to just over 15 hours and 39 minutes.
|
Top 25
parent companies
Week Ended March 13 |
|
# |
Parent |
Unique
Audience (000) |
Reach % |
Time
spent per person (hh:mm:ss) |
|
1 |
Microsoft |
75,529 |
60.0 |
0:40:54 |
|
2 |
Time Warner |
66,757 |
53.0 |
1:51:27 |
|
3 |
Yahoo! |
63,092 |
50.1 |
1:05:32 |
|
4 |
Google |
46,398 |
36.9 |
0:15:42 |
|
5 |
eBay |
25,024 |
19.9 |
1:03:46 |
|
6 |
United States Government |
24,836 |
19.7 |
0:16:57 |
|
7 |
RealNetworks |
17,919 |
14.2 |
0:19:50 |
|
8 |
InterActiveCorp |
16,900 |
13.4 |
0:12:15 |
|
9 |
Walt Disney Internet
Group |
15,123 |
12.0 |
0:23:55 |
|
10 |
Amazon |
14,950 |
11.9 |
0:12:16 |
|
11 |
Ask Jeeves |
13,938 |
11.1 |
0:13:55 |
|
12 |
Landmark Communications |
13,743 |
10.9 |
0:08:05 |
|
13 |
United Online |
13,391 |
10.6 |
0:32:48 |
|
14 |
Viacom International |
11,251 |
8.9 |
0:14:39 |
|
15 |
Apple Computer |
10,325 |
8.2 |
0:19:32 |
|
16 |
Verizon Communications |
9,973 |
7.9 |
0:11:55 |
|
17 |
CNET Networks |
9,444 |
7.5 |
0:09:51 |
|
18 |
Daum Communications |
8,820 |
7.0 |
0:05:00 |
|
19 |
Gannett |
8,563 |
6.8 |
0:10:22 |
|
20 |
AWS Convergence
Technologies |
8,386 |
6.7 |
0:10:21 |
|
21 |
About-Primedia |
8,107 |
6.4 |
0:04:17 |
|
22 |
Cendant |
7,820 |
6.2 |
0:11:42 |
|
23 |
Comcast Corp. |
7,703 |
6.1 |
0:22:08 |
|
24 |
Network Associates |
7,506 |
6.0 |
0:16:26 |
|
25 |
SBC Communications |
7,387 |
5.9 |
0:11:29 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|
Top 25
brands
Week Ended March 13 |
|
|
Parent |
Unique
Audience (000) |
Reach % |
Time
spent per person (hh:mm:ss) |
|
1 |
Yahoo! |
62,699 |
49.8 |
1:05:35 |
|
2 |
MSN |
58,253 |
46.3 |
0:37:02 |
|
3 |
Microsoft |
56,933 |
45.2 |
0:16:19 |
|
4 |
AOL |
49,286 |
39.1 |
2:18:15 |
|
5 |
Google |
45,595 |
36.2 |
0:15:16 |
|
6 |
eBay |
24,141 |
19.2 |
1:02:25 |
|
7 |
Real |
17,418 |
13.8 |
0:19:14 |
|
8 |
Weather Channel |
13,455 |
10.7 |
0:08:04 |
|
9 |
MapQuest |
12,920 |
10.3 |
0:07:50 |
|
10 |
Amazon |
12,514 |
9.9 |
0:11:28 |
|
11 |
CNN |
10,562 |
8.4 |
0:20:18 |
|
12 |
Apple |
10,325 |
8.2 |
0:19:32 |
|
13 |
Lycos Network |
8,820 |
7.0 |
0:05:00 |
|
14 |
Netscape |
8,648 |
6.9 |
0:15:44 |
|
15 |
WeatherBug |
8,273 |
6.6 |
0:10:28 |
|
16 |
McAfee |
7,239 |
5.8 |
0:16:50 |
|
17 |
About.com |
6,898 |
5.5 |
0:04:05 |
|
18 |
ESPN |
6,720 |
5.3 |
0:30:08 |
|
19 |
Comcast |
6,640 |
5.3 |
0:24:45 |
|
20 |
Expedia |
6,556 |
5.2 |
0:09:05 |
|
21 |
Paypal |
6,448 |
5.1 |
0:13:34 |
|
22 |
Dell |
6,429 |
5.1 |
0:13:01 |
|
23 |
Bank of America |
5,996 |
4.8 |
0:26:50 |
|
24 |
Gorilla Nation Media |
5,828 |
4.6 |
0:06:21 |
|
25 |
EarthLink |
5,715 |
4.5 |
0:36:00 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|
Top 25
advertisers
(excludes house ads)
Week Ended March 13 |
|
# |
Company |
Impressions
(000) |
|
1 |
Netflix, Inc. |
672,658 |
|
2 |
LowerMyBills.com, Inc. |
586,051 |
|
3 |
Vonage Holdings Corp |
579,859 |
|
4 |
Ameritrade Holding
Corporation |
444,386 |
|
5 |
Monster Worldwide, Inc. |
421,987 |
|
6 |
Dell Computer
Corporation |
363,221 |
|
7 |
United Online, Inc. |
356,082 |
|
8 |
NexTag.com |
355,911 |
|
9 |
Scottrade, Inc. |
336,700 |
|
10 |
General Motors
Corporation |
309,063 |
|
11 |
Orbitz |
305,970 |
|
12 |
InterActiveCorp |
281,158 |
|
13 |
eTravelTrends Inc. |
255,371 |
|
14 |
Viacom Inc |
248,464 |
|
15 |
Apollo Group, Inc. |
240,782 |
|
16 |
BellSouth Corporation |
239,186 |
|
17 |
j2 Global
Communications, Inc. |
215,445 |
|
18 |
GAIN Publishing |
202,352 |
|
19 |
MatchNet plc |
202,087 |
|
20 |
Lavalife Inc. |
193,605 |
|
21 |
Fidelity Investments |
191,746 |
|
22 |
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp. |
191,134 |
|
23 |
Verizon Communications,
Inc. |
188,747 |
|
24 |
TD Bank Financial Group |
186,443 |
|
25 |
eDiets.com, Inc. |
186,330 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
AdRelevance |
|
Top 25
advertising sites
(excludes house ads)
Week Ended March 13 |
|
|
Company |
Impressions
(000) |
|
1 |
Yahoo! |
4,731,950 |
|
2 |
MSN |
2,542,955 |
|
3 |
eBay |
883,284 |
|
4 |
AOL.com |
689,921 |
|
5 |
myspace |
656,236 |
|
6 |
CNN |
551,798 |
|
7 |
FOXNEWS.COM |
467,275 |
|
8 |
Juno |
451,153 |
|
9 |
NetZero |
408,168 |
|
10 |
iWon |
342,772 |
|
11 |
New York Times |
339,408 |
|
12 |
The Weather Channel |
322,819 |
|
13 |
ESPN.com |
304,538 |
|
14 |
Excite |
265,793 |
|
15 |
About.com |
220,743 |
|
16 |
Realtor.com |
218,717 |
|
17 |
Netscape |
215,587 |
|
18 |
MSNBC |
199,726 |
|
19 |
Classmates |
186,878 |
|
20 |
The Weather Underground |
173,738 |
|
21 |
EarthLink |
167,592 |
|
22 |
Webshots |
153,696 |
|
23 |
Pogo |
153,472 |
|
24 |
Drudge Report |
144,180 |
|
25 |
Forbes |
128,414 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
AdRelevance |
|
Average use
Week
Ended March 13 |
|
|
|
Current Week |
Last Week |
% Change |
|
|
Sessions/Visits per Person |
16 |
16 |
0 |
|
|
Domains Visited per Person |
34 |
34 |
0 |
|
|
PC Time per Person |
15:39:16 |
15:42:00 |
-0.29 |
|
|
Active Digital Media Universe |
125,910,177 |
126,048,315 |
-0.11 |
|
|
Current Digital Media Universe Estimate |
204,915,040 |
204,313,467 |
0.29 |
|
Source: Nielsen//Net Ratings AdRelevance |
|
