Monday, February 12, 2001

Online Travel, Jobs and Entertainment Sites Gain Attention

While most online traffic to the web slipped in January, home Internet users turned to the Internet to divert attention from the winter doldrums. Several categories including travel, jobs and entertainment saw increases in unique users, according to PC Data’s January Top 100.

With 8.1 million unique users, travelocity.com jumped to No. 55 from No. 112 last month. Mapquest.com jumped to No. 62 from No. 69 and expedia.com to No. 70 from No. 145. Disney.com, which has a heavy travel component, saw a traffic spike in January, landing at No. 74 from No. 99, while financial site americanexpress.com, which also has a heavy travel presence, jumped to No. 90 from No. 110. Digitalcity.com, which is used by potential vacationers for local planning, also saw its traffic increase in January, jumping to No. 67 from No. 77 in December.

Top employment sites jobsonline.com and monster.com also did well in January. With 11.5 million unique users, jobsonline.comwas No. 32, up from No. 40 last month. With assistance from Super Bowl advertising, its main competitor monster.com entered the Top 100 at No. 82 from No. 143 with 6.7 million unique users.

With 13.4 million unique users, real.com led entertainment sites in January at No. 24, up from No. 29, while napster.com, with 9 million unique users landed at No. 46 from No. 58 the previous month. Other entertainment sites that did well in January follow: espn.com at No. 50 from No. 57, uproar.com at No. 64 from No. 78, mtv.com at No. 91 from No. 128, ea.com at No. 92 from No. 97, eonline.com at No. 93 from No. 161 and netbroadcaster.com at No. 99 from No. 91.

"The bad news is that overall traffic was down in January, in part a reflection of the general malaise within the entire dot-com industry," said John Megahed, director of research and analysis at PC Data. "The good news though is that even in such a downturn, home users still look to the web for what are becoming online staples -- travel planning, job leads, music downloads and entertainment news."

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.

The top two women’s sites – which recently announced a merger – did well in January. With 8.3 million unqiue users, ivillage.com was at the No. 52 position from No. 125, while women.com with 7.4 million unique users landed at No. 63 from No. 90.

Shopping sites valuepage.com at No. 78 with 6.8 unique users and cyberrebate.com at No. 57 with 8 million unique users registered the largest percent increases in traffic over December.

Itanium Architecture to Command 42% of Server Revenue
In a report released today, Aberdeen Group, a leading provider of technology market consulting and research, states that Intel’s Itanium architecture will be the foundation for 42% of all worldwide server revenue by 2005. Systems based on the Itanium architecture will be broadly deployed starting in the first half of 2002 and will span a wide range of operating systems - including 64-bit Windows, IA-64 Linux, HP/UX, and AIX 5L - and application environments.

“Intel must successfully roll out a replacement for its IA-32 architecture in order to remain an industry leader,” says report author Gordon Haff. “Database, business intelligence, and technical/scientific applications increasingly require a high-performance, balanced 64-bit architecture, but buyers also have expectations of the lower pricing that the widespread adoption of Intel processors has driven in the past.”

Intel’s deployment of the Itanium architecture is more complex than megahertz and chip shipment dates. The market adoption of Itanium will be determined by the successful interplay between processor-centric details and Itanium’s complex multi-vendor ecosystem of interdependent hardware, software, and services.