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London, United Kingdom - (Cheap Web Hosting Directory) - February 8, 2007 - Digital measurement service, comScore Networks, has released the top web properties worldwide for 2006, including reviews of the biggest gainers. According to the report, worldwide Internet usage increased by 10 percent in 2006.

In addition, top gaining categories for 2006 included search, multimedia, community, E-mail, and games. The analysis further indicated that the Search/Navigation category, which includes the three sites that draw the largest worldwide audiences, grew 9 percent, led by Google (the Number 2 site worldwide), rose 13 percent in worldwide visitors in 2006. Microsoft and Yahoo! Sites each grew 5 percent worldwide during 2006, ranking first and third, respectively.

Bob Ivins, Managing Director of comScore Europe remarked, “Google’s popularity has been driven in part by its international appeal as well as the rapid uptake of some of Google’s applications beyond traditional web search. Examples include the 40-percent year-over-year growth in visitors to Google Image Search, the 71-percent growth in visitors to Gmail, and the 62-percent growth in visitors to Google Maps.”

Overall, the top-gaining categories worldwide in 2006 included Multimedia (up 37 percent), Community (up 33 percent), E-mail (up 16 percent), News/Information (up 15 percent) and Games (up 14 percent). A major driver of growth in the multimedia category was YouTube.com, which grew 1,972 percent versus year ago to reach 120 million worldwide visitors in December. In the Community category, which includes social networking sites, MySpace and Blogger were both significant growth drivers, growing 159 percent to 90 million worldwide visitors and 90 percent to 93 million worldwide visitors, respectively. Growth in the e-mail category was driven largely by the rapid adoption of Google Gmail, which was up 71 percent to 60 million visitors year- over-year. Growth in the News/Information category was driven largely by MSN News and Weather (up 131 percent to 25 million worldwide visitors), Yahoo! News (up 44 percent year-over-year to 104 million worldwide visitors), and New York Times Digital (up 20 percent to 68 million worldwide visitors). Finally, the Games category was driven by sites like Nintendo.com (up 157 percent to 19 million worldwide visitors), EA Online (up 13 percent to 27 million worldwide visitors), and Yahoo! Games (up 10 percent to 58 million worldwide visitors).

comScore World Metrix continuously measures and reports online behaviour on a world-wide basis, providing visitation metrics and demographic characteristics for web site audiences around the world. With active representation of countries that comprise the vast majority of the global Internet population, World Metrix provides its clients with worldwide Internet population estimates and harmonized online performance metrics based on a consistent methodology across all countries. More than 100 clients subscribe to comScore’s World Metrix service, including 8 of the top 10 interactive advertising agencies.

comScore Networks measures the digital age with a global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers that allo comScore to confidentially capture browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore consultants apply the knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that endeavor to deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by global firms such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestle, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia.

For more information about comScore Networks, please visit: www.comscore.com.

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