Gambling, Politics, Humor Draw Online Interest

November 23, 2010

Online gambling sites continued a surge of visits from US internet users in October 2010, according to [pdf] data from the comScore Media Metrix service.

Web Users Take a Chance on Gambling Sites

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Online gambling sites saw strong growth among US web users in October 2010 as the World Series of Poker neared its conclusion. Previous comScore analysis indicates other online poker tournaments, such as FullTiltPoker’s Doubles Poker Championship and PokerStars’ WCOOP Main Event, drove significant traffic to gambling sites in September 2010.

During October, the gambling category drew nearly 32 million visitors during the month, up 114% from September’s already elevated audience, making it the highest-growing site category for the second consecutive month.

FullTiltPoker captured the top spot with 4.7 million visitors (up 12%), followed by PokerStars with 2.5 million visitors. UB.com drew 1.8 million visitors with its month-long “Perfect Play? promotion. Kingolotto came in fourth with 1.7 million visitors (up 23%) followed by Absolute Poker with 1.6 million (up 19%) and Sportingbet PLC with 1.4 million (up 39%).

Comedy Central Rally Creates Humor Buzz

More than 60 million Americans visited a humor site in October, up 25% since September, making it the second-fastest gaining category for the month. Comedy Central led the category with 10.8 million visitors, a 26% increase from the prior month, as interest in “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” peaked leading up to Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” on the mall in Washington, DC on October 30.

Break.com ranked second in the category with 7.5 million visitors (up 65%), followed by Cracked with 5.1 million visitors (up 3%). FunnyOrDie came in fourth with 4.4 million visitors, followed by CollegeHumor with 4 million and FailBlog.org with 3.2 million, both up 16%.

Midterms Direct Political Traffic

With the midterm elections approaching in early November 2010, Americans visited political news sites in October to stay up-to-date on campaign developments and voter news and information. The category attracted 27.4 million visitors in October, up 12% from September.

CNN Politics led the category with 7.8 million unique visitors during the month (up 3%) followed by PoliticsDaily with 5.1 million visitors (up 10%) and RealClearPolitics.com with 3.1 million (up 79%).

BarackObama.com jumped four positions in the ranking to capture the #4 spot with 2.1 million visitors, up 221%. The Economist group followed with 2 million visitors, while Politico.com grew 11% to 1.7 million visitors.

Facebook Cracks 150M Monthly Visitors

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Google Sites ranked as the #1 web property in October with 180.8 million visitors, followed by Yahoo Sites with 179.6 million and Microsoft Sites with 170.6 million. Facebook.com ranked #4 with 151.1 million visitors, the first time it has surpassed the 150 million visitor threshold.

WordPress climbed six positions in the ranking to #33 with 31 million visitors, while LinkedIn.com grabbed a spot in the top 50 (#45) with 25.2 million visitors.

Google Ad Network Reaches 9 in 10 Online Americans

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Google Ad Network led the October Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 93.4% of Americans online, followed by Yahoo Network Plus with an 86.3% reach and AOL Advertising with 86.2%.

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