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counts as a visit
Jupiter rule change affects ranking for X10 site
By Marty Beard
When is a visit to a web site a legitimate visit?
One would think the answer would be when the visitor actually chooses to visit the site.
But that is not the case, at least not for Jupiter Media Metrix.
For a long time the web measuring service treated all pop-up and pop-under ads as site visits simply because the ads opened a window to the advertiser's site.
If a pop-under opened up on your PC screen, you were deemed a visitor to the advertiser's site.
Now the service has decided to stop counting such exposures as visits when a significant majority of a site's traffic is derived from pop-unders.
Jupiter now ranks traffic generated by pop-unders in a separate category, "promotional servers," when a site derives most or all of its traffic from pop-unders.
Nielsen//NetRatings, Jupiter Media Metrix's soon-to-be parent company, long ago ceased counting pop-ups and pop-unders as legitimate web traffic.
Jupiter Media Metrix's decision is significant in one special regard. It affects the rankings of the web's most-visited sites, knocking from the top tiers of the list some sites, such as X10.com, that derived the vast bulk of their visits from pop-unders. That site was routinely ranked in recent months as the fourth- or fifth-most-visited site on the web.
X10, as most web surfers know, is the wireless technology company that has wallpapered the web with ads for a "tiny wireless camera" that it markets. The ads open up new browser windows beneath the browser window that the user is reading.
X10’s apparent success in boosting traffic has spawned a slew of imitators, most of which are credit-card companies, casinos and online travel agencies.
November is the first month that Jupiter Media Metrix applied the new rules, and the policy change knocked several sites out of the Top 50, in addition to X10.com.
ABPharmacy, the No. 36 web site in October, fell off the list, as did NextCard.com, which was No. 43 in October.
Several sites remaining on the Top 50 list still get lots of visitors through pop-under campaigns, according to the research firm.
Vivendi Universal sites, which came in at No. 5 for the month of November, with 35.8 million unique visitors, get 54 percent of their traffic from pop-ups and pop-unders. Most of the ads are served from sweepstakes portal iWin.com.
Along those lines, Columbia House web sites, which attracted some 14.5 million visitors in November, draw 51 percent of their traffic from pop-ups and pop-unders. No. 24 site BizRate.com gets 37 percent of its traffic from its pop-up ads, which are essentially mini-surveys for consumers. Those pop-ups helped BizRate traffic jump 17 percent from October to November.
Elsewhere in the rankings, three formerly great portals continue to experience big slides in traffic.
Visits to Walt Disney Internet Group sites were down 16.8 percent in November compared to the level of traffic the sites received in the previous three months.
Traffic to the Excite Network, which saw its parent company, Excite@Home, file for bankruptcy last month, slid 16.2 percent in November, giving the Excite Network the No. 14 spot.
The Excite.com portal assets were acquired by iWon.com, which has already taken over the site’s operations.
And traffic to NBC’s mostly dead portal, NBCi, slumped 31.2 percent in November when compared to the previous three months.
|
TOP 50 WEB PROPERTIES |
|||||
|
Property |
Nov. Visitors (000 |
Oct. Visitors (000 |
Sept. Visitors (000 |
Aug. Visitors (000 |
%Chg over Prev. 3 Months’ Avg (%) |
|
1. AOL Time Warner Network |
83,843 |
83,871 |
81,128 |
78,543 |
3.3 |
|
2. Microsoft Sites |
74,782 |
70,720 |
70,007 |
67,402 |
7.8 |
|
3. Yahoo |
71,976 |
68,364 |
65,568 |
64,683 |
8.7 |
|
4. Terra Lycos |
38,299 |
39,514 |
38,005 |
38,818 |
-1.2 |
|
5. Vivendi Universal Sites (6) |
35,793 |
36,458 |
29,410 |
23,001 |
20.8 |
|
6. About/Primedia (7) |
30,974 |
33,220 |
29,885 |
29,428 |
0.3 |
|
7. Amazon Sites (11) |
30,326 |
24,298 |
21,692 |
22,950 |
32 |
|
8. eBay |
28,364 |
25,945 |
22,158 |
24,900 |
16.6 |
|
9. American Greetings (15) |
25,540 |
20,814 |
17,044 |
9,712 |
61.1 |
|
10. CNET Networks (13) |
23,262 |
21,368 |
22,308 |
21,989 |
6.3 |
|
11. eUniverse Network (10) |
23,054 |
25,156 |
19,721 |
17,290 |
11.3 |
|
12. Google (14) |
22,256 |
21,146 |
18,035 |
16,653 |
19.6 |
|
13. InfoSpace (16) |
21,928 |
20,670 |
19,640 |
20,767 |
7.7 |
|
14. Excite Network (12) |
20,723 |
21,723 |
23,783 |
28,679 |
-16.2 |
|
15. Walt Disney Internet Group (9) |
20,123 |
25,386 |
25,675 |
21,496 |
-16.8 |
|
16. AskJeeves (18) |
17,667 |
16,741 |
15,237 |
14,496 |
14 |
|
17. Viacom Online |
17,366 |
17,008 |
19,175 |
17,139 |
-2.3 |
|
18. ClassMates.com Sites (32) |
15,080 |
10,587 |
9,140 |
10,305 |
50.6 |
|
19. Real.com Network (21) |
14,823 |
14,692 |
16,648 |
14,054 |
-2 |
|
20. AT&T Web Sites |
14,724 |
15,248 |
13,897 |
13,290 |
4.1 |
|
21. Columbia House Sites (19) |
14,508 |
15,560 |
11,815 |
10,830 |
13.9 |
|
22. Gator Network (23) |
13,093 |
13,015 |
11,003 |
11,041 |
12 |
|
22. Ticketmaster Sites (22) |
12,526 |
13,090 |
11,323 |
11,946 |
3.4 |
|
24. BizRate.com (34) |
12,092 |
10,353 |
8,377 |
8,934 |
31.1 |
|
25. United Online (31) |
11,573 |
10,763 |
-- |
-- |
7.5 |
|
26. iWon (27) |
11,038 |
11,404 |
9,986 |
10,931 |
2.5 |
|
27. iVillage (25) |
10,848 |
11,802 |
11,352 |
13,267 |
-10.6 |
|
28. EarthLink (30) |
10,660 |
10,818 |
12,561 |
9,825 |
-3.7 |
|
29. Homestore.com Network (24) |
10,626 |
12,863 |
14,166 |
7,352 |
-7.3 |
|
30. The Weather Channel (37) |
10,364 |
9,831 |
9,205 |
10,612 |
4.9 |
|
31. Monster.com Sites (39) |
10,101 |
9,642 |
-- |
8,309 |
12.5** |
|
32. SBC Communications Sites (42) |
9,832 |
9,297 |
10,281 |
9,079 |
2.9 |
|
33. EA.com and Applications (46) |
9,674 |
8,766 |
7,806 |
7,647 |
19.8 |
|
34. RealNames.com (38) |
9,616 |
9,682 |
8,162 |
7,302 |
14.7 |
|
35. LookSmart |
9,426 |
10,177 |
9,813 |
8,590 |
-1.1 |
|
36. Postmastergeneral.com (45) |
9,358 |
9,235 |
-- |
-- |
1.3* |
|
37. FortuneCity Network (44) |
9,261 |
9,236 |
8,907 |
8,889 |
2.8 |
|
38. News Corp. Online (33) |
9,188 |
10,531 |
10,714 |
7,183 |
-3 |
|
39. Gannett Sites (40) |
9,184 |
9,559 |
10,692 |
7,845 |
-1.9 |
|
40. RedEEMyGifts.com |
9,151 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
41. Barnes & Noble |
8,971 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
42. NBC Internet Sites (28) |
8,862 |
11,346 |
15,483 |
11,807 |
-31.2 |
|
43. Overture Network |
8,722 |
-- |
10,126 |
-- |
-13.9* |
|
44. ToysRUs Sites |
8,657 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
45. HotJobs |
8,655 |
-- |
8,166 |
-- |
6* |
|
46. Atomshockwave Sites |
8,500 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
47. Coolsavings.com (49) |
8,499 |
8,386 |
-- |
-- |
1.3* |
|
48. MyPoints Sites |
8,397 |
-- |
7,683 |
8,512 |
3.7** |
|
49. UGO Networks |
8,173 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
50. Sony Online |
8,143 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Underline indicates a site not in the Top 50 in
October |
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January 3, 2002 ©
2002 Media Life
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