Tax related Web sites had the biggest gains in traffic in the month of January with a 176 percent increase to 24.7 million visitors, according to comScore.
Career and job search sites also saw strong growth during the month. The job search category was up 42 percent to 26.7 million visitors and the career category increased 26 percent to 48.9 million visitors. The growth in both categories can largely be attributed to the increased amount of job losses.
CareerBuilder was the top site in the job search category with 12.2 million visitors (up 34% over December), followed by Monster with 9.5 million visitors (up 42%), and Yahoo HotJobs with 7.7 million visitors (up 38%).
Government sites grew 11 percent in January to nearly 90 million visitors, with tax preparation, unemployment benefits, a new Presidential administration, and the peanut butter salmonella warning all a factor in the category’s gains.
IRS.gov was the top site in the category with 14.7 million visitors, an increase of 240 percent from the previous month, as Americans prepared to file their 2008 tax returns.
Other gainers in the government category included FDA.gov, which grew 277 percent to 3.8 million visitors, driven by the peanut butter salmonella outbreak. WhiteHouse.gov saw its traffic increase 197 percent to 3.7 million visitors as new President Barack Obama was sworn into office.
Google sites remained as the most visited property in January with 151 million visitors, followed by Yahoo sites with 146.1 million visitors and Microsoft sites with 125.6 million visitors. Facebook jumped one spot to climb into the tenth spot for the first time in its history with 57.2 million visitors.
“January has once again seen seasonal gains in the tax, career and travel categories, reflecting the typical American’s tendency to plan for the New Year,”said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.
“This month also saw Facebook break into the Top 10 Properties ranking for the first time, reminding us that 2009 will likely continue to see growth in the adoption and usage of social media.”
