April saw Americans flock online for the latest information related to the swine flu, causing traffic to surge at CDC.gov, according to new data from comScore.
The month also saw visits to social networking sites reach record numbers, driven by growth at Twitter and Facebook, as well as an increase in visits to real estate and home-related sites as the spring prompted many Americans to consider home improvements. The tax category also experienced strong growth due to the April 15 deadline.
“When news of the swine flu pandemic erupted, many Americans turned to the Internet as their primary source of information for how to keep themselves and their families safe,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.
“April also saw a record number of visitors at social networking sites with Facebook and Twitter each adding millions of new users as a result of continued media attention and overall interest in the sites.”
News of the swine flu outbreak led many concerned Americans to jump online in search of information about prevention, detection and treatment of the virus. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s site, CDC.gov, saw a 142 percent increase to 5.6 million visitors, making it the top-gaining property in April.
The social networking category had a record month, growing 12 percent to nearly 140 million visitors, or nearly three-quarters of the U.S. online population. MySpace sites led with 71 million visitors, trailed by Facebook with 67.5 million visitors, an increase of 10 percent from the previous month. Twitter ranked as the third most popular social networking site growing and explosive 83 percent to 17 million visitors.
Many Americans looked for information related to their homes in April with the real estate category seeing a 10 percent increase to 48.4 million visitors and the community-home category gaining 10 percent to nearly 30 million visitors. Move Network was the most popular real estate site attracting 13.2 million visitors (up 88% over March), followed by Yahoo Real Estate with 6.8 million visitors (up 11%) and AOL Real Estate with 3.6 million visitors (up 15%).
Google sites remained the most visited property in April with more than 155 million visitors, followed by Yahoo sites with 149 million visitors and Microsoft sites with 126.5 million visitors.
The top ad network in April was AOL’s Platform-A, reaching 91 percent of the nearly 193 million Americans online. Yahoo Network placed second, reaching 87 percent, while the Google Ad Network closely trailed with an 85 percent reach.
