55 million Americans accessed Web sites last month
Reuters - Posted at 5:55 p.m. PST Monday, March 9, 1998
NEW YORK -- Yahoo! Inc.'s Internet site was the most popular single
Web location again in February, with special events like the Olympics
spurring more people to surf the Web, an industry report said Monday.
More than 31.2 million ''unique'' users traveled last month to
yahoo.com, where they accessed Yahoo!'s search engine, news,
personal e-mail and other products, according to a report by Internet
research firm RelevantKnowledge Inc.
The company, in its report, ''Top 25 Dot.com Domains,'' said it counts
''unique visitors,'' or individuals who may travel to a site,or ''hit''
it, rather than the aggregate hits, so as to more accurately measure
Internet traffic.
Sites operated by software companies Netscape Communications Corp. and
Microsoft Corp. were the second and third most trafficked, the study
said, with 23.1 million and 17.9 million unique visitors, respectively.
The company said that about 55.4 million people in the United States used
the Web in February, with many drawn to information about the Winter
Olympics in Nagano, Japan. News sites enjoyed increased visitations due to
the Clinton scandal, while sites related to Valentine's Day also saw a
rise in traffic.
Yahoo!, Netscape and Microsoft, in that order, were also the top-ranked
sites in November, December and January, RelevantKnowledge said.
Yahoo!'s system of sites, which includes multiple domains that fall under the
Yahoo! brand on the Internet, was also the most popular in February, the study said.
TOP 25 DOT.COM DOMAINS:
Rank Site Persons 12+(in 000's)
1 yahoo.com 31.3 million
2 netscape.com 23.1 million
3 microsoft.com 17.9 million
4 excite.com 16.5 million
5 aol.com 14.1 million
6 infoseek.com 13.7 million
7 geocities.com 12.5 million
8 lycos.com 10.2 million
9 msn.com 8.3 million
10 altavista.digital.com 7.6 million
NOTE: ''Top 25 Dot.com Domains'' ranks the most
highly trafficked single Web sites under one
domain during the December 1997 reporting period
and is ranked by number of Unique Visitors ages 12
and higher.
TOP 25 WEB PROPERTIES:
Rank Property Persons 12+(in 000s)
1 Yahoo/Four 31.9 million
2 Netscape 24.6 million
3 Excite/Webcrawler 19.8 million
4 Microsoft 17.9 million
5 AOL.com 14.3 million
6 Geocities 13.7 million
7 Infoseek 12.5 million
8 Lycos 10.3 million
9 Walt Disney/ABC/ESPN 9.1 million
10 MSN 8.7 million
NOTE: The RelevantKnowledge ''Top 25 Web
Properties'' list for the February 1998 reporting
period ranks consolidated Web properties under one
brand, including multiple domains that fall under
that brand.
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