While e-commerce stole most of the web traffic headlines in December, close examination of the monthly top 50 numbers reveals that e-commerce in 1999 was largely a boutique phenomenon.
        Web shoppers only showed up in large numbers to already established e-commerce sites. Beyond that, they spread themselves in and around at sites far below the top 50--often choosing sites with familiar names.
     Outside of the seasonal addition of toy sites eToys and Toysrus.com to the top 50, the only e-commerce site to emerge as a top 50 web site in ’99 was Buy.com, the self-proclaimed "internet superstore"--a site with all the visual appeal of your local Wal-Mart, or maybe less. 
    The other top 50 e-commerce sites--Amazon.com, eBay, Barnesandnoble.com and CDNow--are normally in the top 50, Christmas time or not.
     On the other hand, Media Metrix in its report cited significant traffic increases in a number of so-called "bricks-and-mortar" sites—that is, web sites run by retailers known for their stores in the physical world.
     Leading the way was Victoriassecret.com, which saw a 49 percent increase in traffic in December from November, followed by Servicemerchandise.com with a 38 percent increase, Staples.com with 37 percent, Gap.com 36 percent and Bestbuy.com and Sears.com both with 35 percent.
    In the top 50, the real e-commerce story in December didn’t have anything to do with cash transactions but with free transactions: the addition of two electronic greeting card sites to the top 50 plus the incredible ascension of Blue Mountain Arts, which saw its traffic increase by nearly 65 percent in December over the previous three-month average.
    It’s worth remembering that one of the things people really like about the web is doing things that are free.
    Beyond the e-commerce ballyhoo, December was actually a pretty good month too for sites that weren’t seeking users' credit cards. Over in the portal derby, Lycos.com experienced an unexpected spike, attracting nearly 30 percent more visitors in December than it had averaged during the previous three months.
     Interestingly, another Lycos Network portal, the search-focused Hotwired.com, took a nosedive in December, losing more than one-third of the audience it had averaged between September and November.
    Also on the portal chart, corroborating the Nielsen//NetRatings December numbers, About.com showed a serious gain, with 23.5 percent more visitors in December than it had averaged the previous three months.
    And proving that a big-time national advertising campaign isn’t necessarily everything, tech news and information site CNET lost ground to rival ZDNet in December, falling back to the No. 2 position on the vertical content chart. Both sites showed major gains in December, but ZDNet, operating from a higher base average between September and November, grew at a slower rate than CNET but reestablished a lead.
    The following charts are based on the sites listed in Media Metrix’s Top 50 Web Sites list for the month of December. We divide the sites into categories for easier comparison. The categories are: Portals/Search Engines; Vertical Content; Communities, Communication & Directories; Web Software, Utilities & Promotions; and E-commerce/Transactions. We have omitted sites from the original list that do not feature outside advertising.