Monday - July 17, 2000

AltaVista Search Popularity Nearly Doubles

WebSideStory, Inc, a provider of real-time Internet intelligence and Web audience analysis, today reported that AltaVista's global search referral percentage – the amount of Web traffic worldwide it refers, or directs, to other sites – has nearly doubled in the past 15 months, from 9.04% on April 5, 1999 to 16.56% on July 4, 2000. During that span, AltaVista, a CMGI company, passed Excite and now ranks second only to Yahoo as the most popular referring search engine, according to WebSideStory's StatMarket.

AltaVista's search referral percentage climbed slowly from April 1999 to January of this year. It then shot up from just over 11% to its current level, according to StatMarket.

"Although Yahoo is still number one, AltaVista is firmly entrenched as the second most popular referring search engine," said Geoff Johnston, vice president of product marketing for StatMarket. "With its recent increase, AltaVista now nearly triples the search referral percentage of its nearest competitor."

Sites that Simplify the Web Show Big Number Gains
V3.com and gator.com, two sites that aim to simplify life on the Internet, registered among the biggest jumps into PC Data Online's Top 100 in June.

V3.com, which provides free URL redirects for sites that have lengthy web addresses, landed at the No. 87 spot from No. 1599 in May. Gator.com, which offers a free "virtual wallet" to store personal Internet passwords, account numbers and log-in Ids, landed at the No. 81 spot in June from No. 105. Traffic to these sites increased 885.8 percent and 14.2 percent, respectively over last month.

"These two sites are indicative of a new wave of Internet services that offer user-friendly solutions to growing complications on the web," said Jeff Moulton, Internet analyst for PC Data Online. "As home users grow increasingly frustrated by mandatory pass words and user Ids, sites that provide a simplified path through the clutter are paying dividends."

V3.com and gator.com join nextcard.com and paypal.com as online service sites that gained traffic in June. Both sites, which have topped PC Data Online's Top Ten "Finance List," set out to simplify online banking and shopping. Nextcard.com, a VISA-related site that also offers customer services, such as shopping concierge service, rose from No. 107 to No. 53. Paypal.com, which simplifies online bill payment, rose from No. 111 to No. 98.

Along these same lines, three services that offer shopping assistance saw their traffic jump in June, a month where online activity was expected to begin a summer relaxation period. Mailbits.com, a site that searches free offers on the Internet and e-mail's participants daily discounts, increased traffic 54.8 percent during the month, increasing from No. 89 to No. 45. Coolsavings.com, which provides a wide range of discounts and coupons, and half.com, a retail/auction site and sells everything at least 50 percent off, saw increases of 40.7 percent and 27.7 percent, respectively. Coolsavings landed at the No. 50 position from No. 85 and half.com at the No. 91 slot from No. 124.

PC Data, a leading Internet research firm that specializes in web commerce measurement, compiles a monthly list of the top web sites, based on "unique users" that visit the site. The list is based on a proprietary software tool that tracks visitors and buyers on each web site.

June, a peak vacation planning month, delivered traffic to online travel sites. Local map site, mapquest.com ranked highest of the sites, landing at No. 43 from No. 46 last month. Expedia.com's traffic jumped 32 percent from May to the No. 48 position. Priceline.com increased nearly 19 percent during the same period to the No. 46 position, while travelocity.com jumped up seven percent to the No. 62 position.

Posting the largest gain for the month was magazineoutlet.com which moved up from No. 4026 to No. 67, a 2,618 percent increase. The magazine retail site recently entered into a partnership with freelotto.com, reaping immediate benefits from its association with the top "Sweepstakes & Lottery" site. Freelotto.com continued its strong presence at No. 23

New to the Top 100 For June 2000 were: earthlink.com (from No. 3219 to No. 92); discovery.com (from No. 203 to No. 96); cybererotica.com (from No. 109 to No. 79); google.com (from No. 103 to No. 80); macromedia.com (from No. 102 to No. 93) and erotism.com (from No. 106 to No. 97).

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