Billion $ prize deadline
spikes traffic at lotto site

Heedless of odds, webheads flock to Grab.com

By Jeremy Schlosberg

   P.T. Barnum would have loved the web.   
   The latest company to make suckers out of millions of people has been rewarded by an appearance among the web’s top 20 properties.
   The company, a little-known outfit called Bradford & Reed, launched a lotto site called Grab.com in October that purported to have a $1 billion prize.
   As the Dec. 28 drawing date approached, enough people thought they might as well have a go at the prize to push Bradford & Reed up to No. 19 on the list of top web properties for the week ending Dec. 31, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
   As it turns out, with 2.4 billion to one odds that anyone would actually be awarded a billion dollars, they really needn’t have bothered. According to accepted odds, it was actually about 200,000 times more likely that someone entering the contest would be murdered than would win the billion dollars.
   Plus the contest’s fine print had it that 62 percent of the billion-dollar prize would be awarded in the year 2040.
   More than 80 percent of Bradford & Reed’s traffic was generated by Grab.com, with the rest coming from Mailbits.com, a site that offers free email newsletters on the fluffiest of topics—trivia, jokes, free offers and the like.
    With the Dec. 28 drawing now behind us, we can report that, strangely enough, no one ended up winning $1 billion.
   Grab.com is now offering a $1 million potential prize for its next contest. The deadline for entering this one is today.
    Elsewhere on the Nielsen//NetRatings chart, a new advertiser has appeared among the web’s top 10—a company called Net2Phone, which offers free phone calls from personal computers to telephones in the U.S.
    Net2Phone was the No. 7 advertiser on the web for the week ending Dec. 31; its 57.4 million impressions put it ahead of web advertising heavyweights America Online and eBay. Net2Phone scored three banners in the top 10 as well, at Nos. 6, 8 and 9.
     

 

Top 25 Properties


Property

Unique_Audience

Reach_%

Time

1. AOL Websites

27,539,746

43.34

0:13:59

2. Yahoo!

23,916,185

37.63

0:28:28

3. MSN

21,529,278

33.88

0:21:13

4. Excite@Home

9,702,954

15.27

0:06:00

5. Microsoft

7,538,902

11.86

0:08:29

6. Lycos Network

6,900,591

10.86

0:15:48

7. Walt Disney Internet Group

5,700,819

8.97

0:13:38

8. eBay

5,122,602

8.06

0:11:19

9. eUniverse Network

4,831,982

7.6

0:55:20

10. Time Warner

4,531,524

7.13

0:06:57

11. Amazon

4,471,419

7.04

0:09:12

12. NBC Internet

4,027,301

6.34

0:07:18

13. CNET Networks

4,014,514

6.32

0:09:03

14. About

3,669,468

5.77

0:08:21

15. LookSmart

3,558,397

5.6

0:04:49

16. Weather Channel

3,541,179

5.57

0:06:18

17. American Greetings

2,950,356

4.64

0:26:41

18. Napster Inc.

2,848,792

4.48

0:08:56

19. Bradford & Reed Inc.

2,666,916

4.2

0:06:33

20. AltaVista

2,572,302

4.05

0:06:21

21. iWon.com Inc.

2,428,302

3.82

0:06:42

22. Ask Jeeves

2,424,815

3.82

0:04:31

23. EarthLink

2,348,047

3.69

0:07:01

24. Uproar

2,295,309

3.61

0:05:43

25. Gator.com

2,181,895

3.43

0:07:49

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

 

 

Top Ten Advertisers


Advertiser

Impressions

Reach_%

1. Microsoft

361,328,179

33.79

2. Barnes and Noble

150,266,083

31.15

3. Amazon

149,758,364

33.46

4. ClassMates

121,267,683

26.8

5. Yahoo!

99,656,575

15.85

6. Next Card

75,152,153

15.63

7. Net2Phone

57,412,395

14.32

8. America Online

56,505,822

17.66

9. eBay

56,100,474

13.23

10. Casino On Net

52,696,049

7.89

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

 

 

Top 25 Domains


Domain

Unique_Audience

Reach_%

Time

1. yahoo.com

21,705,374

34.16

0:29:47

2. aol.com

19,952,204

31.4

0:11:58

3. msn.com

18,641,856

29.33

0:19:43

4. passport.com

11,463,406

18.04

0:04:06

5. microsoft.com

6,281,373

9.88

0:06:24

6. go.com

5,433,618

8.55

0:13:41

7. geocities.com

5,283,112

8.31

0:05:22

8. bluemountain.com

5,247,305

8.26

0:12:01

9. netscape.com

5,142,584

8.09

0:54:51

10. ebay.com

4,826,912

7.6

0:20:46

11. amazon.com

4,161,648

6.55

0:05:48

12. excite.com

3,897,480

6.13

0:09:35

13. lycos.com

3,730,181

5.87

0:07:47

14. weather.com

3,541,179

5.57

0:05:59

15. nbci.com

3,422,218

5.39

0:26:41

16. looksmart.com

3,064,690

4.82

0:03:28

17. americangreetings.com

2,934,971

4.62

0:04:12

18. napster.com

2,848,792

4.48

0:04:57

19. iwon.com

2,428,302

3.82

0:08:28

20. altavista.com

2,232,834

3.51

0:03:59

21. grab.com

2,212,198

3.48

0:16:00

22. msnbc.com

2,146,766

3.38

0:08:17

23. gator.com

2,075,330

3.27

0:09:27

24. compuserve.com

2,052,452

3.23

0:07:01

25. google.com

2,049,093

3.22

0:05:45

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

 

 

Top 25 Advertising Domains


Domain

Impressions

Reach_%

1. yahoo.com

897,529,577

31.12

2. msn.com

476,138,893

26.62

3. ebay.com

425,076,219

7.7

4. aol.com

309,126,304

21.82

5. netscape.com

110,199,840

7.51

6. lycos.com

97,959,770

4.91

7. go.com

84,030,342

6.9

8. excite.com

63,680,235

5.29

9. americangreetings.com

62,840,593

4.75

10. realtor.com

62,355,537

0.69

11. neopets.com

50,785,887

0.61

12. passport.com

47,602,664

11

13. looksmart.com

45,389,683

3.28

14. altavista.com

38,239,923

2.78

15. weather.com

37,289,958

5.05

16. classmates.com

31,744,811

1.17

17. pogo.com

31,451,005

1.18

18. bluemountain.com

29,623,413

4.61

19. nbci.com

29,510,068

3.87

20. compuserve.com

28,317,615

2

21. iwin.com

27,520,968

2.91

22. ezboard.com

27,178,654

0.61

23. msnbc.com

26,791,808

3.1

24. blackplanet.com

25,215,849

0.49

25. att.net

24,004,841

1.23

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

 

 

Top Ten Banners


Advertiser

Impressions

Unique_Audience

Reach_%

1. ClassMates

34,439,241

7,458,225

11.74

2. Bonzi Software

23,333,811

4,678,521

7.36

3. Bonzi Software

12,548,296

4,381,455

6.89

4. Verizon/MSN

13,184,522

4,207,037

6.62

5. Colonize

13,206,868

4,020,055

6.33

6. Net2Phone

7,723,986

3,824,591

6.02

7. WebTV

9,959,842

3,715,355

5.85

8. Net2Phone

7,713,993

3,673,500

5.78

9. Net2Phone

7,508,138

3,621,546

5.7

10. ClassMates

17,593,226

3,609,459

5.68

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

 

 

Average Usage


VALUES

Current Week

Last Week

%Change

Number of Sessions per Week

5

5

0

Number of Unique Sites Visited

5

5

0

Page Views per Week

176

174

1.15

Page Views per Surfing Session

33

32

3.13

Time Spent per Week

2:42:51

2:43:51

-0.6

Time Spent During Surfing Session

0:30:56

0:29:49

3.75

Duration of a Page viewed

0:00:56

0:00:56

0.59

Average Click Rate for Top Banners

0.21

0.24

-12.5

Total Internet Audience Sample

59,892

60,549

-1.09

Active Internet Universe

63,548,361

66,916,118

-5.03

Current Internet Universe Estimate

158,756,922

158,821,843

-0.04

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

 


-Jeremy Schlosberg is the senior editor for new media.


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