....and more on the top sites....AOL # 1 .....MSN rising like a rocket!
Subj: Microsoft is Closing in on Netscape, According to Q4 PC-Meter Sweeps; Microsoft
Date: 97-01-13 08:56:00 EST
From: AOLNewsProfiles@aol.net
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y., Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Rapid growth in traffic to
the Microsoft World Wide Web site (microsoft.com) indicates it is gaining on
rival Netscape, according to the latest PC-Meter(R) Sweeps. The Sweeps is a
quarterly ranking of the top Web sites among U.S. home PC users, measured by
"reach" (unduplicated measurement of audience exposure).
Microsoft gained a record-tying 6.9 points of reach during the quarter
ending in October, and jumped from 11th to fifth place overall. Over the same
period, Netscape lost 2.8 points and dropped from the top spot to number
three. Meanwhile, America Online (aol.com) vaulted over number two Yahoo!
(yahoo.com), a search engine, to regain the number one spot it had held in the
First and Second Quarter Sweeps. A complete list of the Top 50 Web sites has
been compiled by PC-Meter L.P., a subsidiary of top-ten market research firm
The NPD Group, Inc., and ranked by reach.
Microsoft broke into the top 10 for the first time, tying the record set
by the search engine Lycos between January and April for the largest quarterly
gain in reach since the Sweeps began in January. Over the last two quarters,
Microsoft has added 13.0 points, which, if taken alone, is greater than the
total overall mark of the 12th place site, Prodigy (prodigy.com), at 12.5.
The Microsoft site now reaches 20.8 percent of Web users.
Overtaking Netscape still remains a daunting task. Some 38.2 percent of
Web surfers visited Netscape's site during October. In comparison, number one
AOL had a 40.1 percent reach, the third greatest in PC-Meter Sweeps history
behind Netscape's 41.0 in July and 40.4 in August and September.
Two other sites also broke into the top 10 for the first time during the
quarter. The Microsoft Network (msn.com) jumped to number nine from
12th, overtaking Prodigy (prodigy.com) as the number two commercial on-
line network behind AOL. In addition, Geocities (geocities.com), a Web
service offering free home pages, moved to 10th from 13th.
Eight sites entered the top 50 for the first time this quarter. Among
them were: number 39 ESPNET Sportszone (sportszone.com), number 49 The
Weather Channel (weather.com) and sites from adult, directories, Internet
service providers, shopping and Web services categories.
The demographics of the Web were essentially unchanged from the last
Sweeps, with adult men accounting for 55.9 percent, adult women at
31.5 percent and those under 18 with 12.4 percent. However, when viewed from
a strictly male-female perspective, females gained .6 points in audience to
36.7 percent, compared to 63.3 percent male. Earlier in the year, men
accounted for a much higher percentage of Web surfers, 72.5 percent in April.
Of the top 25 sites in the three demographic groups, 18 were shared among
adult men, adult women and children. The men's top 25 had four sites that
were not in the other two: three were computer-related -- RealAudio,
SHAREWARE.COM and CNET -- and the other was an adult site, Amateurs. Women
had three top 25 listings unique to them: two provide directory or lookup
services -- Switchboard and Galaxy -- and the other was a marketing/corporate
site, AT&T.
Children had three sites unique to their demographic top 25: two were Web
services that provide free home pages -- Angelfire and Tripod -- and a third
was the commercial online service, Wow!, which has since discontinued service.
The PC-Meter Sweeps Top 25 Web sites list follows:
1. America Online (40.1% of total audience) - category:
Commercial Online Network
2. Yahoo! (38.5% of total audience) - category: Search Engine
3. Netscape (38.2% of total audience) - category: Web Services
4. WebCrawler (30.8% of total audience) - category: Search Engine
5. Microsoft (20.8 percent of total audience) - category:
Marketing/Corporate
6. Infoseek [Search Engine]
7. Excite.com [Search Engine]
8. Lycos [Search Engine]
9. Microsoft Network (MSN) [Commercial Online Network]
10. Geocities [Web Services]
11. Digital Equipment Corporation (Alta Vista) [Search Engine]
12. Prodigy [Commercial Online Network]
13. CompuServe [Commercial Online Network]
14. Global Network Navigator Inc. [Internet Service Provider]
15. Magellan (McKinley.com) [Search Engine]
16. Amateurs [Adult]
16. ZD Net [News, Information & Entertainment]
18. Netcom [Internet Service Provider]
18. Earthlink [Internet Service Provider]
20. AT&T (att.net) [Internet Service Provider]
21. Cris [Internet Service Provider]
22. RealAudio [Web Services]
23. Switchboard [Directories]
24. Pathfinder (Time-Warner) [News, Information & Entertainment]
25. M.I.T. [Education]
About PC-Meter
PC-Meter L.P., a subsidiary of top-ten market research firm The NPD Group,
Inc., provides audience measurement of World Wide Web sites and on-line
services. It is the only research service providing unduplicated measurement
of audience exposure ("reach") at Web sites, demographics on home-based Web
surfers, and measurement of all sites on the Web.
The information is collected digitally via PC-Meter software, which is
installed on panel members' home PCs and which has a patent pending. Unlike
"site-centric" Web measurement systems, PC-Meter obtains information from a
panel of 10,000 households that is demographically balanced to represent the
population of U.S. PC owners. Test panels are also in place in Germany,
France and the United Kingdom.
The PC-Meter Web measurement service comprises monthly data and a
quarterly syndicated report. Customized consulting and reporting are also
available. There are more than 60 subscribers to the PC-Meter Web Measurement
Service, including 20 major advertising agencies, seven of the top search
engines, and such diverse companies as CNET, Intellicast, Interactive
Imaginations, Microsoft Corporation, NBC Interactive Media, Time-Warner and
Viacom.
Information on PC-Meter is available at the company's World Wide
Web site: pcmeter.com.
SOURCE PC-Meter L.P.
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