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but web's real comer is CNET
Jumps past ZDNet as top source of tech news
By Jeremy Schlosberg
The e-commerce season hit big and hard in November, as the latest monthly numbers from Media Metrix show.
E-commerce and transaction sites dominated Media Metrix’s list of top gainers—that is, web sites experiencing the largest month-to-month percentage increases in unique visitors. Ten of the top 15 gainer sites were e-commerce sites.
But e-commerce wasn’t the whole story in November, as our category charts show. Once again we have divided up the sites listed on Media Metrix’s Top 50 Web Sites list this month into categories for easier comparison of sites. The categories are: Portals/Search Engines; Vertical Content; Communities, Communication & Directories; Web Software, Utilities & Promotions; and Ecommerce/Transactions. We have omitted sites from the original list that do not feature outside advertising.
CNET continues to be the web’s big news. As we predicted last month, CNET has zoomed past older rival ZDNet to emerge as the web’s No. 1 site for technology news, experiencing a 43.7 percent growth in traffic in just one month, October to November. In fact CNET became in November the web’s leading vertical content site among all categories.
Portals continue to grow, against expectations of their imminent demise. Of the web’s top 15 portals, only three have lost visitors since August—Lycos, Excite and LookSmart. Yahoo, AOL and MSN remain the top three in a league by themselves.
The next monthly numbers that will be of great interest will be not December—which will show more e-commerce gains—but January.
What, we wonder, will the web look like after the red-and-green dust has settled? If we get a big blizzard, the weather sites should make a comeback; if there is an international breakthrough—or catastrophe—the news sites will spike. But beyond that is where it gets interesting. Stay tuned.
| Portals/Search
Engines |
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| Site | Parent | Nov (000) |
Oct. (000) |
Sept. (000) |
Aug. (000) |
%change Aug.-Nov. |
| 1. Yahoo | Yahoo | 35,372 | 33,619 | 32,131 | 33,398 | +5.9 |
| 2. Aol | AOL | 30,897 | 28,426 | 28,440 | 29,333 | +5.3 |
| 3. Msn | Microsoft | 30,866 | 30,302 | 28,186 | 28,079 | +9.9 |
| 4. Netscape | AOL | 20,803 | 20,784 | 19,623 | 19,809 | +5.0 |
| 5. Go | Go Network | 19,296 | 19,048 | 18,889 | 18,496 | +4.3 |
| 6. Lycos. | Lycos Network | 13,997 | 13,912 | 13,439 | 14,857 | -5.8 |
| 7. Excite | Excite@Home | 13,389 | 13,387 | 14,085 | 14,149 | -5.4 |
| 8. Altavista | AltaVista | 9,636 | 9,400 | 9,453 | 9,185 | +4.9 |
| 9. Hotbot | Lycos Network | 9,341 | 9,017 | 7,922 | 7,167 | +30.3 |
| 10. Snap | NBCi | 9,121 | 8,932 | 7,661 | 8,334 | +9.4 |
| 11. About | About.com | 8,635 | 8,432 | 8,138 | 8,569 | +0.8 |
| 12. Looksmart | LookSmart | 8,035 | 8,339 | 8,063 | 8,518 | -5.7 |
| 13. Goto | GoTo.com | 7,347 | 7,221 | 7,316 | 7,076 | +3.8 |
| 14. Askjeeves | Ask Jeeves | 5,063 | 4,586 | 4,039 | 3,955 | +28.0 |
| 15. Directhit | Direct Hit | 4,074 | 4,178 | n/a | n/a | -2.5* |
| * Directhit.com percent change is from Oct. to Nov. | ||||||
| Source: Media Metrix
|
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| Vertical
Content Sites |
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| Site | Nov. (000) |
Oct. (000) |
Sept. (000) |
Aug. (000) |
% change Aug/Sept. |
| 1.Cnet.com | 8,411 | 5,852 | 4,416 | n/a | +90.4* |
| 2.Zdnet.com | 7,585 | 7,073 | 7,308 | 7,418 | +2.3 |
| 3.Msnbc.com | 6,990 | 7,151 | 6,666 | 6,273 | +11.4 |
| 4.Weather.com | 4,677 | 5,544 | 6,705 | 5,573 | -16.1 |
| 5.Pathfinder.com | 4,452 | 5,159 | 4,469 | 4,395 | +1.3 |
| 6.Cnn.com | 3,921 | 4,203 | 4,132 | 4,163 | -5.8 |
| 7.Expedia.com | 3,976 | 4,138 | 4,140 | 4,372 | -9.1 |
| 8.Windowsmedia.com | 3,879 | 3,832 | n/a | n/a | +1.2** |
| *Cnet.com percent change
is Sept. to Nov. **Windowsmedia.com percent change is Oct. to Nov. |
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| Source: Media Metrix
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| COMMUNITIES,
COMMUNICATION & DIRECTORIES |
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| Site | Nov. (000) |
Oct. (000) |
Sept. (000) |
Aug. (000) |
% change Aug. Sept |
| 1. Geocities.com | 21,798 | 20,333 | 19,345 | 21,389 | +1.9 |
| 2. Hotmail.com | 14,562 | 14,193 | 13,648 | 13,868 | +5.0 |
| 3. Tripod.com | 11,790 | 11,713 | 10,315 | 11,261 | +4.7 |
| 4. Angelfire.com | 10,588 | 12,179 | 11,075 | 12,156 | -12.9 |
| 5. Xoom.com | 8,096 | 7,944 | 7,077 | 8,662 | -6.5 |
| 6. Icq.com | 5,411 | 5,777 | 5,809 | 6,416 | -15.7 |
| 7. Earthlink.net | 4,930 | 4,771 | 4,458 | 4,334 | +13.8 |
| 8. Digitalcity.com | 4,095 | 4,155 | 4,419 | 5,198 | -21.2 |
| Source: Media
Metrix |
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| WEB
SOFTWARE, UTILITIES & PROMOTIONS |
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| Site | Nov. (000) |
Oct. (000) |
Sept. (000) |
Aug. (000) |
% change Aug. -Nov. |
| 1.Real.com | 9,917 | 8,794 | 10,138 | 8,891 | +11.5 |
| 2.Smartbotpro.net | 6,214 | 4,219 | n/a | n/a | +47.3* |
| 3.Infospace.com | 5,906 | 5,921 | 5,306 | 6,425 | -8.1 |
| 4. M0.net | 5,101 | 4,252 | n/a | n/a | +20.0** |
| 5.Macromedia.com | 5,074 | 4,256 | 3,450 | n/a | +47.1*** |
| 6.Mypoints.com | 4,843 | 3,812 | 3,561 | 4,103 | +18.0 |
| *
Smartbotpro.net percent change is Oct. to Nov. **M0.net percent change is Oct. to Nov. ***Macromedia.com percent change is Sept. to Nov. |
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| Source: Media
Metrix |
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| ECOMMERCE/TRANSACTIONS
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| Site | Nov. (000) |
Oct (000). |
Sept. (000) |
Aug. (000) |
% change Aug. -Nov. |
| 1.Amazon.com | 14,765 | 12,082 | 11,283 | 11,618 | +27.1 |
| 2.Ebay.com | 10,529 | 9,709 | 9,991 | 8,790 | +19.8 |
| 3.Bluemountain.com | 12,742 | 10,961 | 9,155 | 9,168 | +39.0 |
| 4.Barnesandnoble.com | 5,838 | 4,995 | 4,381 | 4,819 | +21.1 |
| 5.Etoys.com | 4,911 | 2,541 | n/a | n/a | +93.3* |
| 6.Toysrus.com | 4,763 | 1,264 | n/a | n/a | +276.9* |
| 7. Buy.com | 4,714 | 2,058 | n/a | n/a | +129.1* |
| 8.Cdnow.com | 4,130 | n/a | n/a | n/a | --- |
| *Etoys.com, Toysrus.com and Buy.com percent change is Oct. to Nov. | |||||
| Source: Media Metrix
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| TOP
GAINERS AMONG WEB’S TOP 500 SITES |
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| Site | Oct. | Nov. | % growth |
| 1 Toysrus.com | 1,264 | 4,763 | 276.9% |
| 2 Kbkids.com | 1,148 | 2,760 | 140.5% |
| 3 Buy.com | 2,058 | 4,714 | 129.1% |
| 4 Onhealth.com | 1,444 | 2,949 | 104.2% |
| 5 Shopnow.com | 1,153 | 2,324 | 101.6% |
| 6 Etoys.com | 2,541 | 4,911 | 93.3% |
| 7 Hallmark.com | 721 | 1,389 | 92.5% |
| 8 Wal-mart.com | 926 | 1,699 | 83.6% |
| 9 Citysearch.com | 1,489 | 2,574 | 72.8% |
| 10 Iwon.com | 1,767 | 3,039 | 71.9% |
| 11 Moviefone.com | 815 | 1,324 | 62.5% |
| 12 Sears.com | 1,143 | 1,845 | 61.4% |
| 13 Shopping.com | 751 | 1,153 | 53.6% |
| 14 Jcpenney.com | 1,686 | 2,565 | 52.1% |
| 15 Abc.com | 3,115 | 4,648 | 49.2% |
| Source: Media
Metrix |
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-Jeremy Schlosberg is the senior editor for new media.