comScore has released its monthly look at U.S. consumer activity at popular online sites for September 2007.
Political sites saw gains as controversies were in the headlines along with the 2008 presidential campaign heating up. Sports sites grew with football season in full swing, and a number of retail categories appear in the ranking of top gaining categories.
“Traditionally, presidential campaigns pick up intensity after Labor Day with the primaries just around the corner,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.
“So it’s no surprise to see a jump in activity in the September before an election year. With the Internet playing an increasingly important role in American politics, it will be interesting to see if the growth trends continue as we inch closer to November 2008.”
The politics category increased 17 percent in September, attracting 8.4 million visitors and ranking as the top-gaining category for the month. Two political controversies helped drive interest in the category, as Idaho Senator Larry Craig’s airport sex scandal and MoveOn.org’s controversial “General Betray Us” ad in the New York Times created buzz.
With September kicking off the football season in the United States, the sports category had an 8 percent increase to nearly 80 million visitors. Yahoo Sports led the category with 24.6 million visitors (up 22 percent), narrowly beating out ESPN with 24.2 million visitors (up 22 percent). The NFL Internet Group increased 26 percent to 18.1 million visitors.
Retail food rose 14 percent to 13.7 million visitors (up 4 percent), most likely due to football season. Flowers, gifts and greetings saw a 9 percent increase to over 29 million visitors, as American Greetings Property was in the top spot with 6.6 million visitors (up 4 percent).
Yahoo sites were the top U.S. properties with 135 million visitors, followed by Google sites with 129 million. The Time Warner Network received 121 million visitors, while Microsoft sites had 119 million, and Fox Interactive Media had 79 million visitors for the month of September.
