Weekly Internet Ratings From Nielsen//NetRatings; Data for Monday, August 23 through Sunday, August 29, 1999; 1800USSearch.com Captures 8.4% Click Rate - Internet/Web/Online Service Information

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Sept 13, 1999

The following Internet audience and advertising information is from Nielsen//NetRatings, the Internet measurement service from Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings, Inc.

The information includes: Top 25 Web Properties, Top 10 Internet Advertisers, Top 10 Ad Banners and Average Internet Usage statistics for the week ending August 29, 1999.

Noteworthy this week:

-- No. 1 clicked-on ad banner was 1800USSearch.com's ad, which had an 8.4% click rate. US Search provides public record information about individuals.

-- The top ad banner for the week was GetSmart's ad, climbing from the No. 5 spot from the previous week. GetSmart, a provider of mortgage loan information and links to lenders, ranked No. 24 on the Top Advertisers list.

-- The top site this week for females was boxerjam.com, an online entertainment (gaming) site. Eighty-four percent of the Web surfers visiting the site during this week were women. The top site for males was sportingnews.com, an online sports community, with 88.2% of those surfing the site being men.

          Nielsen//NetRatings: Top 25 Web Sites by Property
                          August 23-29, 1999
              Ranking of the Most Visited Web Properties

Property                Unique Audience    Time per Person
                             (000)          (hrs:min:sec)
1  AOL Websites             18,546           0:13:47
2  Yahoo!                   16,936           0:33:43
3  MSN                      11,915           0:24:27
4  Lycos Network             7,808           0:10:06
5  GO Network                6,024           0:13:28
6  Real Networks             5,224           0:06:32
7  Excite Network            5,156           0:23:58
8  Microsoft                 4,577           0:12:25
9  AltaVista                 2,868           0:07:29
10 eBay                      2,755           1:07:51
11 Time Warner               2,673           0:14:11
12 Amazon                    2,438           0:09:16
13 Blue Mt. Arts             2,137           0:12:07
14 LookSmart                 2,012           0:06:24
15 Snap                      1,807           0:10:42
16 AT&T                      1,681           0:11:17
17 CNET                      1,541           0:08:45
18 Xoom                      1,505           0:06:42
19 Weather Channel           1,460           0:10:46
20 Broadcast.com             1,419           0:07:59
21 ZDNet                     1,391           0:14:05
22 Viacom Int'l              1,324           0:13:53
23 About.com                 1,293           0:04:56
24 GoTo.com                  1,194           0:02:58
25 CNN                       1,178           0:16:36

Example: The data indicate that approximately 1.2 million home Internet users visited at least one of the CNN.com-owned sites during the week, and each person spent, on average, a total of 16 minutes and 36 seconds at one or more of their sites.

Notes: Rankings are based on audience measurement of people who have access to the Internet from home. A property is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single entity. Reach is a measure of the unduplicated audience that visits a property. The data are expressed as the percent of the total universe of Internet users who logged onto the Internet at least once during the reporting period.

Nielsen//NetRatings: Top Ten Advertisers August 23-29, 1999 Top advertisers, ranked by banner impressions, are based on data from BannerTrack(SM), Nielsen//NetRatings' syndicated advertising research report. An impression is counted each time an ad banner is fully loaded onto a user's screen.

Advertiser     Impressions in millions        Reach %
1  TRUSTe              253.9                   13.9
2  Microsoft           136.0                   27.1
3  Amazon               83.4                   24.5
4  Next Card            54.2                   18.2
5  CDNOW                46.6                   16.1
6  Yahoo!               36.0                   16.0
7  SexSwap              30.4                    2.4
8  About.com            30.2                    9.8
9  Ad Council           29.2                    6.6
10 SexTracker           28.4                    4.1

Impressions reported include house ads, which are ads that run on an advertiser's own web property.

Example: An estimated 29.2 million Ad Council ad banners were completely loaded on users' computers during the surfing week. These banners were delivered to 6.6% or 3.1 million home Internet users.

Nielsen//NetRatings: Top Ten Ad Banners Viewed August 23-29, 1999 Top Banners, ranked according to reach percent, are cited from BannerTrack, Nielsen//NetRatings' syndicated ad research service.

Advertiser(a)        Reach %  Creative
1  GetSmart           4.9     Find: A Loan for Me. Refinancing,
                              Second Mortgage, Debt Consolidation
2  Autoweb            4.6     BUY IT; SELL IT
3  Bonzi Software     4.0     Speed Up Internet Connection
4  Autoweb            4.0     GET A PRICE
5  At Hand            3.5     Find it now in the Yellow Pages.
                               What are you looking for?
6  Uproar             3.1     Where does Homer Simpson Work?
                               Bar, Bank, Nuclear Plant, Sewer
7  Acceleration
   Software           3.1     Find the ball and win a free Internet
                               Telephone AND a web accelerator!
8  Next Card          2.8     Expect More from your credit card.
                               Online credit decision in 30 seconds
9  Beyond.com         2.8     WIN A Sega Dreamcast System!
10 Capital One        2.8     Visa Platinum; Credit Limit, Fixed
                              APR, Apply Online, Submit

(a) Ad banners that run predominantly on an advertiser's own
   property or house ads are not included in the above.

                        Average Internet Usage
                          August 23-29, 1999

Data below represent activity for the average Internet user during
the designated weekly period.

                                 Current Week   Last Week  % Change
Number of Sessions per Week            6            6         0.0
Number of Unique Sites Visited         6            6         0.0
Page Views per Week                  113          115        -1.7
Page Views per Surfing Session        20           20         0.0
Time Spent per Week            2: 43: 00    2: 44: 30        -0.9
Time Spent per Surfing Session 0: 27: 10    0: 27: 25        -0.9
Duration of a Page Viewed      0: 01: 22    0: 01: 22         0.0
Average Click Rate for Top Banners  0.41         0.54       -24.1
Active Internet Universe
(actually surfed)           46.8 million  46.3 million       +1.1
Current Internet Universe
 Estimate (had access, but
 did not necessarily go
 online)                   108.6 million 108.4 million       +0.2