ESPN’s College Basketball Website is the 2006 March Madness Online Champion

George Mason's Website a Winner Off the Court

With the University of Florida's victory on April 3, the 2006 NCAA Men's Basketball tournament finally comes to a close. While the tournament produced more than its share of upsets on the court there were two significant winners off the court as both ESPN.com Men's College Basketball website and George Mason's website saw significant increases in their market share of visits online.

The ESPN.com Men's Basketball site (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb) experienced an increase in market share of visits by 77 percent among all sites compared to 2005. The figure is based on the peak week of visits in 2006 and 2005, which is the first week of the tournament ending Saturday (week ending March 18, 2006 compared to week ending March 19, 2005). When looking at daily traffic for the opening day of the tournament, ESPN.com Men's Basketball site experienced an increase in market share of visits of 155 percent on March 16, 2006 versus the 2005 opening day on March 17, 2005.

Sites that also experienced large weekly increases in market share of visits were the MSN Fox Sports College Basketball site (http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk), which increased by 77 percent for the week ending March 18, 2006 compared to the same week last year, and the NCAA Sports site (www.ncaasports.com), up 42 percent in that period. Yahoo's College Basketball site (http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab), which had the largest market share in 2005 among these five sites, dipped by 7 percent compared to the previous year.

"As we analyze visits to the top college basketball sites for this year's championship, it's clear that ESPN's college basketball section was the run-away leader in market share," said Bill Tancer, General Manager of Global Research for Hitwise. "As is the case for George Mason University, it is also interesting to note that success on the court can significantly boost a school's brand. I would be hard pressed to find a more effective publicity engine for George Mason than their 'Cinderella' run at the championship."

The George Mason basketball team pulled off one of the most remarkable runs in NCAA Men's Basketball tournament history as the 11th-seeded team made it all the way to the Final Four before losing to Florida on April 1. The school's website (www.gmu.edu) was also a big winner, experiencing an increase in market share of visits by 393 percent from March 26, 2006 (the day after they advanced to the Final Four) compared to March 12, 2006 (the day the team was selected to the NCAA Tournament). Accordingly the school's admissions site (http://admissions.gmu.edu) increased 151 percent the next day, March 26, 2006 compared to March 25, 2006.

For the four weeks ending April 1, 2006 the search term "george mason university" was the third most successful term driving traffic to 'Education - Institutions' category. Before the tournament began, the term "george mason university" was ranked 182 (four weeks ending March 11, 2006).

Top Ranked Search Terms Resulting In Visits to the Education - Institutions Category Period: Four Weeks Ending April 1, 2005

Visit length on par with other finance sites

On Tuesday, March 21, Google surprised its competitors with the beta launch of Google Finance, which compiles stock information and financial news. Just how will this new effort impact online financial information?

Google Finance ranked at number 28 in the Business Information category for the week ending March 25, 2006, its first week online. Yahoo! Finance dominates the Business Information category, with 31.9 percent market share of category visits for that week. While Google Finance's share was only a fraction of that at 0.53 percent, Google has done little to promote the site in its first week online.

Visit Length Increases as Users Grow Familiar with Google Finance

The average visit length for the Business Information category was 8 minutes 29 seconds for the week ending March 25, 2006, and while Google Finance's average visit length was below this at 6 minutes 2 seconds, its session time lengthened during its second week online. On March 28, 2006 visitors stayed for an average of 8 minutes 23 seconds, indicating that they may be becoming more acquainted with the site and its content offerings.
While Google Finance is attracting traffic, financial information seekers are still using familiar sites, according to Hitwise Clickstream data. For the week ending March 25, 2006, 26 percent of visitors to Google Finance left the site for another Business Information site, including Yahoo! Finance, which accounted for 5.1 percent of downstream visits. An additional nine percent of Google Finance's downstream visits went to Google News, indicating that Google Finance users may already be users of Google News.

"While the Google Finance market share is still relatively small compared against Yahoo! Finance and MSN Money Central, the rapid ramp in average session time for Google Finance indicates that Google searchers are interacting with this new financial portal offering," said Bill Tancer, General Manager, Global Research for Hitwise. "Average session time when viewed alongside increased market share is a great measure of early adoption for content sites."

Google Finance attracts the young and wealthy

Visitors to the Business Information category are typically older than the average Internet user - for the four weeks ending March 25, 2006, 29 percent were over age 55. While 32 percent of Google Finance's visitors fell into this age group in its first week online, an additional 24 percent of its visitors were between the ages of 25 and 34. In comparison, 16 percent of visitors to Yahoo! Finance were aged 18-24. Google Finance visitors were also more likely to have incomes over $150,000, with 19 percent in this income bracket, compared to 10 percent of visitors to Yahoo! Finance in the same period.

Top 10 Business Information Sites by Market Share of Visits to Category Week ending March 25, 2006

Hitwise Search Intelligence data reveals the most popular search terms containing the term(s) 'katie couric' for the 4 weeks ending April 8, 2006. The results are ordered based on the volume of searches.

Fast Mover - The Masters

www.masters.org

Rank week ending - April 1 - 13,687
Rank week ending - April 8 - 392
Positions jumped - 13,295

The official Masters golf tournament website features all the latest details on this golfing championship, including a leader board, course notes, a virtual tour, player profiles and golf trivia. The 70th Masters tournament concluded April 9, with golfer Phil Mickelson capturing his second green jacket of his career.

Hitwise data showed that www.masters.org experienced a dramatic increase in market share of US visits by 3,392 percent (week ending April 8, 2006 versus week ending April 1, 2006) as US Internet users went online to follow the action from the tournament. The site climbed the ranks in the Hitwise 'Sports' category to a rank of 22 (week ending April 8, 2006).

Hitwise Lifestyle data for the 4 weeks ending April 8, 2006 shows that people in the PRIZM NE Lifestyle Social Group of "Second City Society" were almost two times more likely to visit Masters.org than the general Internet population. Among second-tier cities, Second City Society stands at the top of the heap, a social group consisting of the wealthiest families who live outside the nation's metropolitan core. The three segments in this group are dominated with married couples with children, college degrees, large homes, and executive jobs. Ethnically, the residents are predominantly white with above-average rates of Asian Americans. In the marketplace, they spend big on digital and wireless technology, business and cultural media, casual-dining restaurants, upscale retailers, foreign travel and luxury cars.

Category Spotlight: Travel - Cruises

The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 04/15/2006 » Ranks by 'Visits'.

Top 10 Travel - Cruises sites		Average Session Duration
Vacations To Go Carnival Cruise Lines Royal Caribbean International Princess Cruises Cruise Critic Message Boards Norwegian Cruise Line 1-800-Cruises.com Cruise Critic Travelzoo Cruises Celebrity Cruises		The average session duration for the Travel - Cruises category during the week ending 04/15/06 was 10 minutes, 3 seconds which represents a decrease of 3 seconds compared with last week.

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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, April 2006