Story Published:
Dec 20, 2009 at 4:02 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Dec 20, 2009 at 9:46 PM CDT
According to reports from Hitwise, a site comparing US Internet traffic figures from January through November, some of the nation's most prominent web based businesses saw some big changes in 2009, with many well known sites losing market share and traffic.
Among the "biggest losers" for 2009 are Ebay, which saw a 37% decline in visitor traffic and Craigslist, losing 43% of their traffic. Both sites are known for their ability to help shoppers find bargains or enable those wishing to sell something to find their best market.
There is a tendency to try to explain the trend as a direct result of economic conditions. But that theory seems to fall short when other sites with serious drops are added to the mix. Yahoo and MySpace also saw drops of 20 percent or more. Why their decline?
Conversely, other e-commerce sites, like Wal-Mart, seemed to thrive. Wal-Mart had a 64% increase in visits. Amazon, ranked as the number 15 site overall, had a 26% increase. Wal-Mart and Amazon seem to be going head to head in a quest for holiday shoppers, with daily deals and significant cuts on popular items including e-books and dvds.
Target.com was also up by 69% with Best Buy seeing a rise as well by 23%.
While MySpace declined, Facebook simply soared, with a 236% increase, the largest among the top 25 sites.
Newcomer Bing! seemed to pull some of Yahoo's market share, but Google held strong as most visited of all sites, with a respectable 7% increase.
MSN was up 58%, the only news site reporting that level of gain. YouTube rose 109%, securing itself as a national viewing past-time.
Sports sites also did very well with ESPN up 48% and Yahoo! Sports up 51%.
Newcomer Twitter had nowhere to go but up, but seemed attached to a rocket this year, with visits up 559%.
Though hard data for our region is not readily available, anecdotally, Upper Cumberland area users have seriously participated in at least a few of those trends, most often naming high usage levels of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Rankings as reported by Hitwise.com are below:
| Rank |
Websites |
Domain |
9-Nov |
9-Jan |
Rank-Jan2009 |
% Change |
| 1 |
Google |
www.google.com |
6.85% |
6.42% |
1 |
7% |
| 2 |
Facebook |
www.facebook.com |
6.47% |
1.93% |
5 |
236% |
| 3 |
Yahoo! Mail |
mail.yahoo.com |
3.95% |
4.75% |
2 |
-17% |
| 4 |
Yahoo! |
www.yahoo.com |
2.72% |
3.52% |
4 |
-23% |
| 5 |
MySpace |
www.myspace.com |
2.67% |
3.53% |
3 |
-24% |
| 6 |
YouTube |
www.youtube.com |
1.96% |
0.94% |
10 |
109% |
| 7 |
MSN |
www.msn.com |
1.76% |
1.12% |
9 |
58% |
| 8 |
Windows Live Mail |
mail.live.com |
1.71% |
1.62% |
6 |
5% |
| 9 |
Yahoo! Search |
search.yahoo.com |
1.24% |
1.56% |
8 |
-20% |
| 10 |
eBay |
www.ebay.com |
1.00% |
1.58% |
7 |
-37% |
| 11 |
Bing |
www.bing.com |
0.96% |
N/A |
DNR |
NA |
| 12 |
Gmail |
www.gmail.com |
0.91% |
0.90% |
11 |
1% |
| 13 |
AOL |
www.aol.com |
0.73% |
0.27% |
24 |
170% |
| 14 |
AOL Mail |
mail.aol.com |
0.58% |
0.45% |
14 |
28% |
| 15 |
Amazon.com |
www.amazon.com |
0.49% |
0.39% |
19 |
26% |
| 16 |
Google Image Search |
images.google.com |
0.49% |
0.54% |
12 |
-9% |
| 17 |
My Yahoo! |
my.yahoo.com |
0.48% |
0.40% |
17 |
18% |
| 18 |
Wikipedia |
www.wikipedia.org |
0.43% |
0.52% |
13 |
-19% |
| 19 |
Yahoo! News |
news.yahoo.com |
0.31% |
0.38% |
20 |
-20% |
| 20 |
Walmart |
www.walmart.com |
0.27% |
0.17% |
36 |
64% |
| 21 |
Pogo |
www.pogo.com |
0.25% |
0.42% |
16 |
-39% |
| 22 |
Ask.com |
www.ask.com |
0.25% |
0.27% |
23 |
-9% |
| 23 |
Craig’s List |
www.craigslist.org |
0.24% |
0.43% |
15 |
-43% |
| 24 |
Google maps |
maps.google.com |
0.23% |
0.19% |
32 |
22% |
| 25 |
Bank of America Online Banking |
onlinebanking-nw.bankofamerica.com |
0.22% |
0.27% |
25 |
-18% |
| 26 |
Yahoo! Finance |
finance.yahoo.com |
0.22% |
0.27% |
26 |
-19% |
| 27 |
Tagged |
www.tagged.com |
0.21% |
0.14% |
42 |
49% |
| 28 |
Bank of America |
www.bankofamerica.com |
0.20% |
0.22% |
27 |
-8% |
| 29 |
Chase Online |
chaseonline.chase.com |
0.18% |
0.15% |
41 |
24% |
| 30 |
eBay Motors |
www.ebaymotors.com |
0.17% |
0.30% |
21 |
-43% |
| 31 |
Target |
www.target.com |
0.16% |
0.09% |
62 |
69% |
| 32 |
Yahoo! Address Book |
address.yahoo.com |
0.16% |
0.29% |
22 |
-45% |
| 33 |
MapQuest |
www.mapquest.com |
0.16% |
0.20% |
31 |
-22% |
| 34 |
ESPN |
www.espn.com |
0.16% |
0.11% |
56 |
48% |
| 35 |
PayPal |
www.paypal.com |
0.15% |
0.20% |
30 |
-23% |
| 36 |
Yahoo! Answers |
answers.yahoo.com |
0.15% |
0.14% |
45 |
12% |
| 37 |
Plentyoffish.com |
www.plentyoffish.com |
0.15% |
0.21% |
29 |
-27% |
| 38 |
MSNBC |
www.msnbc.com |
0.15% |
0.16% |
37 |
-7% |
| 39 |
Match.com |
www.match.com |
0.15% |
0.06% |
95 |
135% |
| 40 |
Twitter |
www.twitter.com |
0.15% |
0.02% |
331 |
559% |
| 41 |
CNN.com |
www.cnn.com |
0.14% |
0.18% |
34 |
-20% |
| 42 |
Chase Banking |
www.chase.com |
0.13% |
0.12% |
52 |
8% |
| 43 |
The Weather Channel – US |
www.weather.com |
0.13% |
0.18% |
33 |
-28% |
| 44 |
Google News |
news.google.com |
0.13% |
0.13% |
50 |
1% |
| 45 |
Yahoo! Sports |
sports.yahoo.com |
0.12% |
0.08% |
74 |
51% |
| 46 |
Wells Fargo – Online Banking |
online.wellsfargo.com |
0.12% |
0.15% |
38 |
-24% |
| 47 |
Yahoo! Profiles |
members.yahoo.com |
0.12% |
0.05% |
132 |
140% |
| 48 |
Google Video |
video.google.com |
0.11% |
0.05% |
128 |
124% |
| 49 |
Wells Fargo |
www.wellsfargo.com |
0.11% |
0.13% |
49 |
-11% |
| 50 |
Yahoo! Accounts |
edit.yahoo.com |
0.11% |
0.09% |
71 |
28% |
| 51 |
NetFlix.com |
www.netflix.com |
0.11% |
0.12% |
53 |
-8% |
| 52 |
AOL Search |
www.aolsearch.com |
0.11% |
0.08% |
82 |
47% |
| 53 |
Yahoo! Games |
games.yahoo.com |
0.11% |
0.14% |
43 |
-23% |
| 54 |
Singlesnet |
www.singlesnet.com |
0.11% |
0.21% |
28 |
-49% |
| 55 |
Yahoo! Sports – Fantasy Football |
football.fantasysports.yahoo.com |
0.10% |
0.01% |
1463 |
1840% |
| 56 |
The Internet Movie Database |
www.imdb.com |
0.10% |
0.13% |
46 |
-27% |
| 57 |
BestBuy |
www.bestbuy.com |
0.10% |
0.08% |
79 |
23% |
| 58 |
Fox News |
www.foxnews.com |
0.10% |
0.09% |
63 |
2% |
| 59 |
Photobucket |
www.photobucket.com |
0.09% |
0.15% |
39 |
-38% |
| 60 |
Wachovia Online Services |
onlineservices.wachovia.com |
0.09% |
0.11% |
55 |
-13% |
