The holidays drove major traffic shifts for the third consecutive month.

In December, the U.S. Internet population totaled 152.1 million users. They spent an average of 27.6 hours online, an increase of 6 percent from November, as consumers prepared for and celebrated the holidays.

“Our year-end sales data have confirmed that 2003 online holiday retail spending grew by 30 percent, to a record $12.5 billion,” says Peter Daboll, President of comScore Media Metrix. “Consumers actively used the Web to buy online and guide their shopping offline, leaving their mark in traffic patterns across a range of retail categories from Flowers, Gifts and Greetings to Department Stores to Toys.”

Top 50 Properties

In December, membership in the comScore Media Metrix Top 50 required a site to cross a 14 percent higher threshold than in November. Of those properties in the Top 50 in both November and December, AmericanGreetings Property had the largest jump, moving 22 spots to #13. Other properties that posted a double-digit increase in rank include Best Buy Sites (moved 17 spots to #30), Target Corporation (moved 15 spots to #27) and Sears Sites (moved 11 spots to #38). In addition, December saw Dell rise to claim the number 50 position.

Top-Gaining Categories and Properties

With just one exception, each of the top ten gaining categories in December was driven upward by the holidays, and seven of the ten categories were Retail subcategories. This month, the top-gaining category was Flowers, Gifts and Greetings, which drew 42.4 million unique visitors, an increase of 41 percent versus November. AmericanGreetings, the top property in the category, was visited by 24.4 million Americans in December. This represents an impressive 88 percent increase versus November, making AmericanGreetings the fourth-largest gaining property in December.

In December, more than 22 million visitors logged on to UPS.com, USPS.com, FedEx.com and other sites to track the progress of millions of packages on their way to gift givers and recipients. As a result, the Shipping category recorded the second-largest gain, with every site in the category seeing an increase in visitation of more than 30 percent from November to December.

The Jewelry, Luxury Goods and Accessories category was the third largest gainer in December. Many lucky gift recipients are now wearing or carrying the spoils of 100+ percent gains in shopper traffic at BlueNile.com, Coach.com and Zales.com. A 500 percent increase in visitors to OmahaSteaks.com helped propel the Retail/Food category up 27 percent from November to December, making it the fifth-largest gaining category this month.

A number of other Retail subcategories saw significant holiday-related increases, including Fragrances and Cosmetics, Home Furnishings, Department Stores and Toys. LLBean.com, the top-gaining property in December, drew 3.6 million visitors as consumers outfitted themselves and their gift recipients for the holidays and a series of winter storms bearing down on the East Coast. Despite widely reported financial difficulties, KB Toys recorded a 52 percent increase in Web visitors, as Americans turned to the Internet seeking respite from malls crowded with holiday toy shoppers.

With the close of the year, most Americans close their financial books, and many seek last-minute advice to ensure their affairs are in order. Nearly 7 million Americans flocked to the Taxes category, making it the fourth-largest gainer in December. The number of visitors to TurboTax.com more than doubled from November to December, and IRS.gov and TaxAct.com both saw significant increases.

With stomachs fuller over the holidays than any other time of year, AstraZeneca posted a 102 percent jump in visitors, driven almost entirely by PurplePill.com, the Web site for acid reflux disease-treatment Nexium. LookSmart grew by 101 percent, largely due to the popularity of the company’s recently launched FindArticles.com Web site. National Geographic’s hugely popular issue focusing on sharks helped draw 3.3 million visitors to the site in December, a 76 percent increase versus November. RedNova.com grew 56 percent to 4.7 million visitors as space enthusiasts tracked the progress of the Mars rover mission.

	Top 50 Properties December 2003 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix Rank Property Unique Vistors (000)   Total Internet Users 152,109 1 Yahoo! Sites 111,271 2 Time Warner Network 110,471 3 MSN-Microsoft Sites 110,021 4 Ebay 69,169 5 Google Sites 61,501 6 Terra Lycos 52,080 7 Amazon Sites 45,725 8 About/Primedia 42,601 9 Excite Network 25,119 10 CNET Networks 25,075 11 Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) 25,072 12 Viacom Online 24,730 13 AmericanGreetings Property 24,422 14 Weather Channel, The 23,786 15 Real.com Network 22,252 16 Verizon Communications Corporation 22,090 17 Wal-Mart 21,429 18 Shopping.com Sites 21,314 19 Symantec 19,888 20 AT&T Properties 17,535 21 InfoSpace Network 17,268 22 Monster Property 17,259 23 EA Online 16,795 24 SBC Communications 16,498 25 Sony Online 16,475 26 Weatherbug.com Property 16,426 27 Target Corporation 15,986 28 Ask Jeeves 15,807 29 Vivendi-Universal Sites 14,712 30 Best Buy Sites 14,633 31 iVillage.com: The Womens Network 14,556 32 Tickle, Inc. 14,304 33 eUniverse Network 13,964 34 NFL Internet Group 13,885 35 Gorilla Nation Media 13,860 36 ORBITZ.COM 13,715 37 Cox Enterprises Inc. 13,529 38 Sears Sites 13,256 39 Classmates.com Sites 13,233 40 Expedia Travel 12,878 41 BLASTCOMM.COM 12,761 42 Gannett Sites 12,719 43 JACQUIELAWSON.COM 12,684 44 BIZRATE.COM 12,599 45 Earthlink 12,193 46 United Online, Inc 12,115 47 Comcast Corporation 11,948 48 News Corp. Online 11,822 49 Hewlett Packard 11,653 50 Dell 11,507

	Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors December 2003 vs. November 2003 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix   Nov-03 (000) Dec-03 (000) Percent Change Total Internet Users 151,107 152,109 0.7% Retail - Flowers/Gifts/Greetings 30,091 42,383 40.9% Shipping 16,425 22,406 36.4% Retail - Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories 11,171 14,810 32.6% Taxes 5,395 6,937 28.6% Retail - Food 10,229 13,014 27.2% Retail - Fragrances/Cosmetics 10,134 12,709 25.4% Retail - Home Furnishings 18,722 23,248 24.2% E-Cards 42,125 51,480 22.2% Retail - Department Stores 37,181 44,403 19.4% Retail - Toys 19,138 22,742 18.8%

	Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percent Change in Unique Visitors* December 2003 vs. November 2003 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix Property Oct-03 (000) Nov-03 (000) Percentage Change Rank by Unique Visitors LLBEAN.COM 1,543 3,560 130.7% 201 AstraZeneca 1,474 2,971 101.5% 240 LookSmart 2,103 4,220 100.7% 172 AmericanGreetings Property 13,025 24,422 87.5% 13 NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM 1,858 3,264 75.6% 220 TRIPADVISOR.COM 2,797 4,666 66.8% 151 REDNOVA.COM 4,250 6,613 55.6% 101 LASTMINUTETRAVEL.COM 4,596 7,139 55.3% 91 Forbes Property 3,957 6,015 52.0% 113 KB Toys 3,308 5,022 51.8% 141

About comScore Media Metrix
comScore Media Metrix, a division of comScore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report – with unmatched accuracy - details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. comScore Media Metrix continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its Media Metrix syndicated Internet ratings - long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers - while drawing upon comScore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. All comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About comScore Networks
comScore Networks provides unparalleled insight into consumer behavior. This capability is based on a representative cross-section of more than 1.5 million global Internet users who have given comScore explicit permission to confidentially capture their Web-wide browsing, buying and other transaction behavior, including offline purchasing. Through its patent-pending technology, comScore measures what matters across the entire spectrum of surfing and buying behavior. This deep knowledge of customers and competitors helps clients design more powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by global leaders such as Microsoft, Kraft, The Newspaper Association of America, Knight Ridder Digital, Best Buy, Verizon, Nestlé, Wells Fargo & Company, GlaxoSmithKline, and Orbitz. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.