This is an actual church, with real services
By Heidi Dawley Apr 24, 2007
Each week nearly two million people tune into Britain’s Radio 4 to hear “Sunday Worship,” an ages-old program that broadcasts a service each week from a different church. But just over a week ago listeners tuned in to hear something rather new.
The service was coming from a very different sort of church, one lacking a street address and a building, even a choir. Hosting the service was St. Pixels.
St. Pixels, as the name implies, is a virtual church, existing only in cyberspace, and its debut on Radio 4 was a first for the BBC.
“Church online is really quite out on the frontier. The bringing together of technology and theology is an incredibly interesting dynamic at the moment,” observes Steven Goddard, one of the people behind the creation of St. Pixels.
Goddard believes such online ventures help make religion more accessible, and that may be just the sort of boost online religion needs these days.
Traffic data suggests religion sites aren't seeing the surges in traffic of the past, and some may actually be losing visitors, as other destinations grab a bigger chunk. Traffic to the religion category in the U.S. was down 23 percent this March versus March 2006 as a percentage of total internet visits, according to Hitwise, the web tracking firm (see charts, below). Says LeeAnn Prescott, Hitwise's research director: "Part of it is the growth in social networking."
St. Pixels was officially launched about a year ago by the team behind the British Christian webzine Ship of Fools, with funding from the Methodist church, and thus began the first online services. The aim is to create a fully 3D community. So far the church has amassed about 1,800 registered members and gets about 600 daily visitors.
Attending a service at St. Pixels is quite a different proposition. Those entering the church to worship first create a cartoon avatar for themselves, choosing things like what nose they’d like, their hairstyle and the clothing. They also create an online name.
They can then attend services, where, as in a traditional church, there are prayers, sermons and hymns led by members, some of whom are ordained. Afterwards, the congregation usually retires to the site’s bar together.
One of the values of the live service is that it taps into the same sense of community, and the need for community, behind the growth of the social networking sites.
Goddard believes there are only a small number of virtual churches like St. Pixels at the moment, including a few on the 3D community Second Life, but he sees others emerging, saying, "Undoubtedly we will see more of these churches.”
For St. Pixels, the Radio 4 broadcast was a big event, both as an opportunity to make itself known to the world and for its members to actually meet.
Ultimately, since avatars and web sites don’t work too well on radio, St. Pixels had to find a real church for the day, and it even lined up a choir to sing the hymns. About 25 key members of the church turned up for the event, including one who flew in all the way from the U.S.
“We love to be on the cusp of new things and we like to experiment the whole time," says Goddard. "This was a great opportunity to meet each other and to just take the risk.”
Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended April 15, the top five parent companies were Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online for the 11th straight week. The top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, Microsoft and AOL Media Network for the second straight week.
Experian Group Limited, last week’s No. 2, was the top advertiser with 7.59 million impressions generated, ahead of No. 2 NexTag at 7.5 million. With 28.9 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, more than quadrupling No. 2 MySpace at 5.92 million.
Sessions per person per week were up from last week to 16, with domains visited per person even at 38. Average PC time per person per week was up slightly to 17 hours and 29 minutes.
Online religion destinations for March 2007 U.S., Home and Work (000)
Site
Mar-06
Mar-07
% Change
Gospel Communications Network
--
3,456
--
Beliefnet
2,610
2,339
-10%
Salem Web Network
2,047
1,876
-8%
The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints
1,350
1,641
22%
Christianbook.com
1,445
1,517
5%
About.com Religion & Spirituality
964
1,423
48%
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
Lifestyle - Religion Category Monthly Market Share of US Visits For the Month ofMarch 2007
Rank
Name
Domain
Market Share
1
BeliefNet
www.beliefnet.com
7.03%
2
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
www.lds.org
4.56%
3
Bible Gateway
www.biblegateway.com
3.94%
4
American Family Association
www.afa.net
2.68%
5
Crosswalk.com
www.crosswalk.com
1.83%
6
OnePlace.com
www.oneplace.com
1.49%
7
ChristianityToday.com
www.christianitytoday.com
1.18%
8
Eternal World Television Network
www.ewtn.com
1.15%
9
ChristiaNet
www.christianet.com
1.02%
10
New Advent
www.newadvent.org
1.02%
For the Month ofMarch 2006
Rank
Name
Domain
Market Share
1
BeliefNet
www.beliefnet.com
7.93%
2
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
www.lds.org
4.05%
3
Bible Gateway
www.biblegateway.com
3.30%
4
Christianbook.com
www.christianbook.com
2.74%
5
Inspirational Flash Movies
www.inspiringthots.net
2.16%
6
secure.afa.net
secure.afa.net
1.72%
7
Crosswalk.com
www.crosswalk.com
1.57%
8
RBC Ministries
www.rbc.org
1.30%
9
OnePlace.com
www.oneplace.com
1.22%
10
New Advent
www.newadvent.org
1.22%
Source: Hitwise
Top 25 parent companies Through April 15
#
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Microsoft
86,557
62.9
0:41:22
2
Google
82,293
59.8
0:29:19
3
Yahoo!
75,030
54.5
1:03:29
4
Time Warner
68,344
49.6
1:38:09
5
News Corp. Online
41,643
30.2
0:48:54
6
eBay
35,840
26.0
0:53:09
7
InterActiveCorp
27,019
19.6
0:13:26
8
Landmark Communications
24,857
18.1
0:21:45
9
Amazon
22,307
16.2
0:12:37
10
Apple Computer
21,949
15.9
0:31:19
11
Walt Disney Internet Group
19,609
14.2
0:19:45
12
Wikimedia Foundation
19,455
14.1
0:09:12
13
RealNetworks, Inc.
18,587
13.5
0:20:51
14
New York Times Company
17,799
12.9
0:09:15
15
United Online
13,436
9.8
0:27:21
16
Bank of America
13,309
9.7
0:19:52
17
Viacom Digital
12,382
9.0
0:24:06
18
CNET Networks
12,136
8.8
0:06:56
19
General Electric
11,048
8.0
0:09:42
20
AT&T Inc.
11,038
8.0
0:13:16
21
Verizon Communications
10,975
8.0
0:20:44
22
E.W. Scripps Company
10,774
7.8
0:05:52
23
Comcast Corp.
10,724
7.8
0:30:07
24
CBS Corporation
10,210
7.4
0:15:42
25
Gannett
9,838
7.2
0:10:13
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
Top 25 brands Through April 15
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
78,231
56.8
0:23:09
2
Yahoo!
74,333
54.0
1:03:49
3
MSN/Windows Live
64,523
46.9
0:39:53
4
Microsoft
59,196
43.0
0:16:58
5
AOL Media Network
59,098
42.9
1:46:31
6
Fox Interactive Media
38,096
27.7
0:50:21
7
eBay
31,045
22.6
0:55:32
8
Weather Channel
22,463
16.3
0:23:02
9
Apple
21,949
15.9
0:31:19
10
YouTube
19,836
14.4
0:24:03
11
Wikipedia
19,377
14.1
0:09:09
12
Real Network
18,587
13.5
0:20:51
13
Amazon
17,039
12.4
0:13:04
14
Ask Search Network
15,720
11.4
0:15:05
15
Bank of America
12,589
9.1
0:20:06
16
About.com
12,387
9.0
0:03:08
17
CNN
12,043
8.8
0:14:36
18
Blogger
11,373
8.3
0:10:13
19
Comcast
9,467
6.9
0:33:01
20
IMDb - Internet Movie Database
8,654
6.3
0:06:27
21
Chase
8,463
6.2
0:16:27
22
Gorilla Nation Media
8,287
6.0
0:06:49
23
Nickelodeon Kids and Family Network
8,048
5.9
0:32:02
24
Wal-Mart Stores
8,023
5.8
0:13:51
25
PayPal
7,632
5.5
0:13:56
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
Top 25 advertisers (excludes house ads) Through April 15
#
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Experian Group Limited
7,585,953
2
NexTag, Inc.
7,499,747
3
Low Rate Source
3,944,449
4
InterActiveCorp
3,725,646
5
Countrywide Financial Corporation
1,964,650
6
Reunion.com L.L.C.
1,769,801
7
Netflix, Inc.
1,105,669
8
Verizon Communications, Inc.
1,105,421
9
AT&T Corp.
994,786
10
True
914,158
11
Fidelity Investments
899,983
12
Monster Worldwide, Inc.
795,824
13
Apollo Group, Inc.
780,570
14
Ford Motor Company
682,839
15
Vonage Holdings Corp
629,820
16
Low.com
613,055
17
Bank of America Corporation
590,491
18
Privacy Matters
585,760
19
InPhonic.com
506,531
20
The General
488,937
21
TaxACT
476,152
22
United Online, Inc.
464,474
23
Scottrade, Inc.
440,034
24
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp.
432,579
25
AmeriValue
387,349
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
Top 25 advertising sites (excludes house ads) Through April 15
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Yahoo!
28,914,220
2
MySpace
5,915,404
3
MSN
5,345,333
4
eBay
1,200,733
5
AOL.com
1,059,819
6
The Weather Channel
741,403
7
Juno
733,826
8
FOXNEWS.COM
725,151
9
MSNBC
723,893
10
Comcast.net
668,075
11
YouTube
535,693
12
New York Times
533,572
13
NetZero
507,114
14
IMDb
429,008
15
Classmates
391,688
16
Realtor.com
301,511
17
The Weather Underground
288,187
18
CNN
275,066
19
ESPN.com
268,442
20
CBS SportsLine
267,067
21
Photobucket
245,424
22
Excite
236,144
23
EarthLink
210,967
24
Drudge Report
205,357
25
iWon
198,865
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
