|
|
|
see a holiday boost
DigitalCity climbs into ranks of top web domains
By Marty Beard
During the holidays, travel is as traditional as turkey and Santa Claus, whether the journey is a trek to be with loved ones or just an attempt to change the scenery.
The internet has added a new dimension to holiday travel: On top of online travel agencies, people are also starting to turn to the web to look for holiday diversions.
With travel to family gatherings comes holiday stir-craziness: The kitchen’s dirty, and the dining room, along with the rest of the house, is cluttered. And no one feels like cooking or eating leftovers. Time to get out of the house and perhaps hit a restaurant, concert or movie–but which one and where?
That’s when people log on to online city guides. Judging from Nielsen//NetRatings data, the phenomenon provided a traffic boost to DigitalCity.com, the network of internet city guides owned by AOL Time Warner, nudging it into the ranks of the top-25 domains.
For the week ending Dec. 30, DigitalCity.com came in at No. 24 in the rankings of the most heavily visited domains, with a unique audience of 2.4 million people, or 3.3 percent of the internet audience.
The average visitor spent a little over five minutes on the site, just long enough to pick out a restaurant or movie listing.
Traffic to DigitalCity sites was also enhanced by various holiday movie promotions, such as AOL Time Warner’s "Search for the Ring Sweepstakes," a campaign for "The Lord of the Rings."
Additionally, the DigitalCity sites can help visitors find fitness centers and gyms, another concern that likely fueled traffic as people got ready to compensate for holiday-related calorie binges.
People’s fear of computer worms and viruses toward the end of the year also ushered in a rush of visitors to the web site of antivirus software company Symantec. Symantec.com came in as the No. 22 property for the week, with 2.8 million unique visitors, as web surfers decided to clean and protect their computers at year’s end.
The year 2001, after all, was a pretty rough time in terms of computer worms and viruses. Some of the worst offenders haven’t disappeared yet, either, further fueling consumer anxiety. The SirCam worm, which still has not been exterminated, has a nasty way of lifting random, personal files off the disk drives of infected computers, then mailing them out to all addresses in their Microsoft Outlook address books.
Another worm, Badtrans.B, is capable of stealing sensitive information such as credit card numbers, and the Magistr worm can perpetrate even worse damage, essentially rendering infected computers inoperable.
Virus experts expect more of the same this year.
|
Top 25 Properties |
|||
| Property |
Unique |
Reach % |
Time Spent |
| 1. AOL Time Warner |
36,826 |
50.5 |
0:14:11 |
| 2. Yahoo |
30,803 |
42.3 |
0:30:30 |
| 3. MSN |
27,462 |
37.7 |
0:24:06 |
| 4. Microsoft |
11,632 |
16.0 |
0:05:30 |
| 5. Amazon |
8,006 |
11.0 |
0:09:20 |
| 6. eBay |
7,830 |
10.7 |
0:42:28 |
| 7. Google |
7,231 |
9.9 |
0:10:07 |
| 8. About-Primedia |
7,047 |
9.7 |
0:08:11 |
| 9. Lycos Network |
6,798 |
9.3 |
0:08:46 |
| 10. Walt Disney Internet Group |
6,756 |
9.3 |
0:15:02 |
| 11. iWon |
5,998 |
8.2 |
0:20:35 |
| 12. eUniverse Network |
5,809 |
8.0 |
0:08:54 |
| 13. CNET Networks |
4,614 |
6.3 |
0:07:08 |
| 14. American Greetings |
4,433 |
6.1 |
0:07:11 |
| 15. Gator.com |
4,417 |
6.1 |
0:07:10 |
| 16. InfoSpace |
4,407 |
6.1 |
0:04:48 |
| 17. AT&T |
3,519 |
4.8 |
0:10:10 |
| 18. Classmates |
3,338 |
4.6 |
0:05:13 |
| 19. Ask Jeeves |
3,162 |
4.3 |
0:04:53 |
| 20. WhenU.com |
3,062 |
4.2 |
0:02:15 |
| 21. EarthLink |
2,845 |
3.9 |
0:07:28 |
| 22. Symantec |
2,819 |
3.9 |
0:05:22 |
| 23. United Online |
2,565 |
3.5 |
0:07:37 |
| 24. EA Online |
2,535 |
3.5 |
1:14:15 |
| 25. Real Networks |
2,497 |
3.4 |
0:05:09 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|||
|
Top 25 Domains |
|||
| Domain |
Unique |
Reach % |
Time Spent |
| 1. yahoo.com |
29,744 |
40.8 |
0:30:31 |
| 2. aol.com |
26,825 |
36.8 |
0:11:26 |
| 3. msn.com |
24,962 |
34.3 |
0:20:21 |
| 4. passport.com |
14,860 |
20.4 |
0:03:19 |
| 5. microsoft.com |
10,863 |
14.9 |
0:05:22 |
| 6. amazon.com |
7,631 |
10.5 |
0:08:50 |
| 7. ebay.com |
7,371 |
10.1 |
0:43:05 |
| 8. google.com |
7,222 |
9.9 |
0:10:06 |
| 9. go.com |
6,432 |
8.8 |
0:15:24 |
| 10. netscape.com |
5,818 |
8.0 |
0:09:22 |
| 11. geocities.com |
5,375 |
7.4 |
0:04:50 |
| 12. gator.com |
4,405 |
6.0 |
0:07:09 |
| 13. excite.com |
3,645 |
5.0 |
0:12:38 |
| 14. classmates.com |
3,335 |
4.6 |
0:05:13 |
| 15. lycos.com |
3,096 |
4.3 |
0:10:07 |
| 16. whenu.com |
3,062 |
4.2 |
0:02:15 |
| 17. compuserve.com |
2,802 |
3.9 |
0:13:49 |
| 18. about.com |
2,755 |
3.8 |
0:04:01 |
| 19. cnn.com |
2,635 |
3.6 |
0:09:33 |
| 20. iwon.com |
2,603 |
3.6 |
0:29:43 |
| 21. hotmail.com |
2,504 |
3.4 |
0:19:49 |
| 22. earthlink.net |
2,501 |
3.4 |
0:07:53 |
| 23. pogo.com |
2,490 |
3.4 |
1:15:32 |
| 24. digitalcity.com |
2,438 |
3.3 |
0:05:07 |
| 25. tripod.com |
2,424 |
3.3 |
0:04:17 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|||
|
Average Usage |
|||
|
Current Week |
Last Week |
% Chg |
|
| Number of Sessions per Week |
6 |
6 |
0.00 |
| Page Views per Week |
211 |
209 |
0.96 |
| Page Views per Surfing Session |
36 |
35 |
2.86 |
| Time Spent per Week |
3:06:25 |
3:07:51 |
-0.76 |
| Time Spent during Surfing Session |
0:31:55 |
0:31:02 |
2.85 |
| Duration a Page Viewed |
0:00:53 |
0:00:53 |
-0.02 |
| Active Internet Universe |
72,879,869 |
74,629,435 |
-2.34 |
| Current Internet Universe Estimate |
175,288,506 |
175,224,389 |
0.04 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|||
January 4, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
Printer-Friendly
Version | Send
to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact
Us
