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Europeans Flock to Photo and Real Estate Sites in August

Posted on: Thursday, 5 October 2006, 12:00 CDT

LONDON, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore Networks, the leader in measuring the digital age, today revealed the top European Internet properties based on data collected through its World Metrix audience ratings service for the month of August. Notable gainers included YouTube.com, which experienced a healthy 16-percent gain versus July to 23.3 million visitors, and the Mozilla Organization, which grew 29 percent to 15.5 million visitors.

Traffic to the real estate category in Europe grew by 11 percent during August, led by German site ImmobilienScout24, which rose 18 percent to 3.8 million visitors. Ranking second in the category was British site Rightmove.co.uk, which gained 7 percent versus July to 3.2 million visitors. Rounding out the top three, German site, Immonet.de, rose 13 percent to 2 million visitors.

"The increase in visitors to real estate sites in August correlates well with recent announcements from major mortgage lenders and the Bank of England, indicating that mortgage activity is actually quite strong in spite of interest rate changes," said Bob Ivins, managing director, comScore Europe. "As consumers increasingly turn to the Internet in their real estate research process to view properties, check mortgage rates and calculate loan payments, their Internet behavior can be expected to become a leading indicator of overall macro-economic trends in the residential housing market."

Top Five Real Estate Web Properties by Unique Visitors in Europe Age 15+ August 2006 vs. July 2006 Total Europe - Home and Work Locations Source: comScore World Metrix Jul-06 Aug-06 Percentage (000) (000) Change Real Estate Category - European Unique Visitors 31,325 34,631 11% ImmobilienScout24 3,266 3,838 18% RIGHTMOVE.CO.UK 3,001 3,213 7% IMMONET.DE 1,804 2,034 13% Funda N.V. 1,615 1,889 17% Vebra 1,568 1,625 4% European Photo Sharing Sites Click with Consumers in August

In August, traffic to the Photo Site category rose 5 percent, led by Imageshack.us, with 13.0 million visitors (a 10-percent increase versus July), followed by Flickr.com with 6.5 million visitors (an 11-percent gain) and Piczo.com with 6.4 million visitors (a 10-percent gain). As Europeans sought to share their best summer pictures, Photobucket.com and Pbase.com achieved the highest growth rates, increasing 15 percent and 18 percent, respectively versus the prior month.

Top 10 Photography Web Properties by European Unique Visitors Age 15+ August 2006 vs. July 2006 Total Europe - Home and Work Locations Source: comScore World Metrix Jul-06 Aug-06 Percentage (000) (000) Change Total European Photo Site Visitors 57,512 60,595 5% IMAGESHACK.US 11,806 13,013 10% FLICKR.COM 5,834 6,454 11% PICZO.COM 5,826 6,390 10% Photobucket.com LLC 3,606 4,132 15% IMAGEVENUE.COM 3,846 3,973 3% Yahoo! Photos 3,627 3,906 8% Webshots.com 3,407 2,865 -16% Putfile.com 2,463 2,407 -2% Pbase.com 1,978 2,327 18% Eastman Kodak 1,940 1,957 1% Top European Sites

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! Sites ranked as the top 3 spots among European Internet users, with each remaining relatively flat versus July. Of the top 10 European sites, Wikipedia saw the greatest gain during August, growing 9 percent to 50.9 million visitors.

Top 10 Online Properties in by European Unique Visitors Age 15+* August 2006 Total Europe - Home and Work Locations Source: comScore World Metrix Unique Visitors (000) Total European Internet Audience 215,887 Google Sites 159,632 Microsoft Sites 144,806 Yahoo! Sites 99,116 eBay 88,810 Time Warner Network 60,371 Wikipedia Sites 50,877 Amazon Sites 42,563 Adobe Sites 31,350 Vodafone Group 30,480 Ask Network 30,461 * Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. About comScore World Metrix

comScore World Metrix is the first service to continuously measure and report 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.

About comScore Networks

comScore Networks is a global leader in measuring the digital age. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behaviour, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behaviour and attitudes. comScore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by global leaders 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, please visit http://www.comscore.com/ .

comScore Networks, Inc.

CONTACT: Andrew Lipsman of comScore Networks, Inc., +1-312-775-6510,press@comscore.com

Web site: http://www.comscore.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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