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goes mainstream
Remember the X10? Now meet all its imitators.
By Marty Beard
Call it the X10 effect: A pop-under ad opens up a new browser window on a user's computer screen without his or her consent.
Pop-unders first flooded the internet several months ago to promote an inexpensive wireless camera made by wireless technology company X10. The campaign boosted the X10 site to the No. 4 spot in Jupiter Media Metrix’s ranking of the 50 most heavily visited web sites.
Because pop-unders arrive uninvited and must be closed by the user, their initial reception was chilly at best, and there were real questions as to whether the device would be adopted by other marketers.
The answer is yes, and there are now a slew of X10 imitators willing to risk the wrath of users if it will move products.
For the month of September, a site called ABPharmacy.com vaulted to the No. 33 slot in the rankings, with nearly 10.1 million unique visitors.
ABPharmacy.com is a site that offers a prescription-drug discount program. For $5.95, participants get special deals at any of a number of national pharmacy chains, including Rite Aid, Eckerd and Walgreens, plus a number of independent apothecaries.
The largest sources of traffic to ABPharmacy.com were Gay.com, Foxsports.com and interactive ad network Fastclick.net, which has deployed many of the original X10 ads.
Numerous other companies have adopted the pop-under strategy, including online travel agency Orbitz.
Meanwhile, the September attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon had a noticeable impact upon web surfers’ habits, according to Jupiter Media Metrix’s data.
Most notably, 51 percent of all web surfers visited news sites in September, up from 40 percent of all web users in August.
CNN.com came in as the No. 1 news site, with 24.8 million unique visitors, up 141 percent from August. Site visitors spent an average of 33 minutes on CNN.com in September, up 39 percent from the month before.
The No. 2 news site was MSNBC.com, which had 22.2 million unique visitors, up 66 percent over August. The average number of minutes MSNBC.com visitors spent on-site was 32.1, up 46 percent over August.
In addition to pushing up visits to established news sites, the events of Sept. 11 spawned several new web sites that have attracted a noticeable amount of traffic.
Among them are Doubtlessdesigns.net, an online slide show that chronicles the events of Sept. 11 and the aftermath. The site, which received 2.6 million unique visitors, is back online after going on hiatus due to copyright concerns over some of its photographs.
And TributetoHeroes.org, the online arm of the celebrity telethon and fundraiser of the same name, received 2.1 million unique visitors. Another charity site, LibertyUnites.org, received 733,000 million visitors.
The government’s call for tips related to the attacks drew quite a bit of traffic as well. About 865,000 unique visitors flocked to Ifccfbi.gov, a joint site of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center.
|
TOP 50 WEB PROPERTIES |
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|
Property |
Sept. Visitors (000) |
August Visitors (000) |
July Visitors (000) |
June Visitors (000) |
% Chg over Prev. 3 Months’ Avg |
|
1. AOL Time Warner Network |
81,128 |
78,543 |
73,310 |
72,477 |
8.5 |
|
2. Microsoft Sites |
70,007 |
67,402 |
63,894 |
61,512 |
8.9 |
|
3. Yahoo |
65,568 |
64,683 |
64,388 |
59,907 |
4.1 |
|
4. Terra Lycos |
38,005 |
38,818 |
37,631 |
33,277 |
3.9 |
|
5. X10.com |
34,734 |
34,622 |
39,567 |
34,188 |
-6.4 |
|
6. About |
29,885 |
29,428 |
28,496 |
25,949 |
6.9 |
|
7. Vivendi Universal Sites (9) |
29,410 |
23,001 |
21,707 |
15,581 |
46.3 |
|
8. Walt Disney Internet Group (12) |
25,675 |
21,496 |
20,050 |
19,308 |
27.1 |
|
9. Excite Network (7) |
23,783 |
28,679 |
28,685 |
26,589 |
-15 |
|
10. CNET Networks (11) |
22,308 |
21,989 |
20,906 |
19,006 |
8.1 |
|
11. eBay (8) |
22,158 |
24,900 |
22,129 |
23,263 |
-5.4 |
|
12. Amazon (10) |
21,692 |
22,950 |
21,576 |
19,972 |
0.9 |
|
13. eUniverse Network (14) |
19,721 |
17,290 |
14,581 |
13,560 |
30.2 |
|
14. InfoSpace (13) |
19,640 |
20,767 |
20,712 |
21,101 |
-5.8 |
|
15. Viacom Online |
19,175 |
17,139 |
16,881 |
14,308 |
19 |
|
16. Google |
18,035 |
16,653 |
15,159 |
13,567 |
19.2 |
|
17. American Greetings (31) |
17,044 |
9,712 |
8,936 |
8,439 |
88.8 |
|
18. Real.com Network |
16,648 |
14,054 |
14,171 |
14,229 |
17.6 |
|
19. NBC Internet Sites (22) |
15,483 |
11,807 |
12,288 |
13,644 |
23.1 |
|
20. AskJeeves (17) |
15,237 |
14,496 |
14,390 |
13,931 |
6.8 |
|
21. Homestore.com Network (45) |
14,166 |
7,352 |
8,694 |
7,217 |
82.7 |
|
22. AT&T Web Sites (19) |
13,897 |
13,290 |
12,516 |
10,841 |
13.8 |
|
23. EarthLink (30) |
12,561 |
9,825 |
9,894 |
9,007 |
31.2 |
|
24. Columbia House Sites (25) |
11,815 |
10,830 |
-- |
-- |
9.1* |
|
25. iVillage (20) |
11,352 |
13,267 |
14,187 |
9,082 |
-6.8 |
|
26. Ticketmaster Sites (21) |
11,323 |
11,946 |
12,237 |
10,838 |
-3 |
|
27. Gator Network (23) |
11,003 |
11,041 |
11,278 |
10,754 |
-0.2 |
|
28. News Corp. Online (47) |
10,714 |
7,183 |
-- |
-- |
49.2* |
|
29. Gannett Sites (42) |
10,692 |
7,845 |
7,712 |
7,061 |
41.8 |
|
30. New York Times Digital |
10,359 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
|
31. SBC Communications Sites (34) |
10,281 |
9,079 |
9,011 |
8,488 |
16 |
|
32. Overture Network |
10,126 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
33. ABPharmacy.com |
10,063 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
34. iWon (24) |
9,986 |
10,931 |
10,023 |
10,056 |
-3.4 |
|
35. LookSmart (38) |
9,813 |
8,590 |
9,192 |
8,595 |
11.6 |
|
36. The Weather Channel (26) |
9,205 |
10,612 |
9,989 |
11,351 |
-13.6 |
|
37. NextCard.com (29) |
9,162 |
9,904 |
6,780 |
7,755 |
12.5 |
|
38. ClassMates.com Sites (28) |
9,140 |
10,305 |
9,534 |
9,241 |
-5.7 |
|
39. FortuneCity Network (36) |
8,907 |
8,889 |
8,890 |
7,774 |
4.6 |
|
40. Homestead.com (37) |
8,866 |
8,640 |
9,553 |
7,868 |
2.1 |
|
41. BizRate.com (35) |
8,377 |
8,934 |
7,307 |
7,279 |
6.8 |
|
42. HotJobs.com |
8,166 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
43. RealNames.com (46) |
8,162 |
7,302 |
-- |
-- |
11.8 |
|
44. McAfee.com Sites |
7,979 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
45. RealCities |
7,978 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
46. Tribune Interactive |
7,956 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
47. Knight Ridder |
7,862 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
48. EA.com and Applications (43) |
7,806 |
7,647 |
7,717 |
-- |
1.6** |
|
49. MyPoints Sites (39) |
7,683 |
8,512 |
7,831 |
8,203 |
-6.1 |
|
50. MailBits.net |
7,466 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Underline indicates a site not in the Top 50 in
August |
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October 16, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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