scoring

'Fiscal cliff' fears blamed for flat online holiday spending growth

Growing fears of an impending economic crisis in the new year apparently led to weaker-than-expected U.S. online holiday sales results.

Consumers spent $42.3 billion online during the November-December holiday shopping season, a 14 percent increase over 2011, according to data released today by ComScore. While online shopping set some spending records, overall growth was largely flat, the market analyst concluded.

"This year's growth rate is essentially on a par with last year's," ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement. "But despite many positives for the online sector, this year's season did … Read more

Online holiday shoppers spend $35B so far this season

Online spending hit $35 billion over the first 46 days of the holiday season , according to data out yesterday from ComScore.

From November 1 through December 16, sales jumped 13 percent jump over the same period last year. Last week set a record with spending surpassing $7 billion for the first time ever.

Green Monday (a term coined by eBay to refer to the second Monday in December) saw sales of $1.275 billion, while three other days for the season accounted for more than $1 billion in online spending.

However, the 13 percent rise is lower than expected, according … Read more

Facebook ranking would climb with new ComScore system

ComScore has an early Christmas gift for Facebook -- a slight boost in its Internet audience ranking thanks to a change in its measurement system.

ComScore, which tracks Web site visitors and other information, today unveiled its new digital audience measurement and media planning tool dubbed the "Media Metrix Multi-Platform."

Currently in beta in the U.S., the technology tracks audience size and demographics on traditional desktop browsers as well as mobile devices. And it does so in such a way that accounts for people using multiple devices to access the sites.

Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of … Read more

Online holiday spending to hit $43.4 billion this year

Online retailers will have good reason to make merry this holiday season.

People shopping via the Internet will spend to the tune of $43.4 billion during November and December, according to a report out today from ComScore.

That figure is a 17 percent gain over last year's online holiday spending, which itself rose 15 percent over 2010's number. It's also way ahead of the retail industry's expectation of just a 4.1 percent rise in overall consumer spending this season.

"The strength leading up to and during the holiday season-to-date, in addition to a … Read more

Listen to and follow the World Series online

Want to watch the World Series online? Sorry. Fox Broadcasting seems to have made that impossible (or just illegal) in 2012. But have no fear: when you're away from your TV, you can still listen to or follow the MLB championship games easily with a few choice Android apps.

Listen to the World Series live on your Android device

If you've sprung for a subscription from MLB At Bat, you're already covered. Those of us on the cheap can get our World Series broadcast on our Android phones for free with the ESPN Radio Android app. ESPN … Read more

Pinterest pierces Top 50 most-visited sites list

ComScore released its list of Top 50 most-visited Web sites in the U.S. for September, and besides the usual big hitters, Pinterest made its debut appearance on the list.

Using its Media Metrix survey service, research firm ComScore found that Google was the top site in September, with 187 million visitors, and was closely followed by Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook.

"September also marked the first time that popular social-media site Pinterest cracked ComScore's Top 50 Properties ranking as it surpassed 25 million visitors for the month," ComScore Executive Vice President Jeff Hackett said in a blog … Read more

Google reigns in search for September while Yahoo falls off

Surprise, surprise, Google is still the king of search in the U.S. In fact, any other search engine pales in user numbers comparison.

According to new data released by digital analytics company ComScore today, 66.7 percent of users core searches in September were on Google, which is 0.3 percent higher than August. Trailing behind were Microsoft's search engines, which got 15.9 percent of the market share, and Yahoo came in third with 12.2 percent -- which is down 0.6 percent from August.

Over the last year, Yahoo's share has been in a steady free-fall. … Read more

Twitter takes a mild beating from Instagram

Twitter must feel bereft and be developing an inferiority complex. AllThingsDigital, via an unpublished ComScore report, unveiled that Facebook's photo-sharing service, Instagram, bested Twitter for August in mobile app daily engagement. According to the report, Instagram averaged 7.3 million daily active users (DAUs) in the U.S. and Twitter a mere 6.87 million. In addition, Instragram users spent 44 percent more time than Twitter users in their respective mobile apps. And, Twitter has 25 percent more smartphone users than Instagram, 29 million versus 22 million, according to ComScore.

It turns out that more people in the U.… Read more

iPhone 5 matches monthlong sales figures for 4S in just 3 days

More data rolling in attests to a blockbuster start for Apple's iPhone 5. The latest evidence: A new report from ComScore, which finds that the first three days of iPhone 5 preorders equaled the earlier Apple record set by the iPhone 4S over the course of a month.

Everybody's got a pet explanation for why the iPhone 5 is selling like hotcakes, and ComScore's boils down to this:

There are more people in the market for a smartphone than ever before. There's also a "substantial group" of holdouts who waited for the iPhone 5. … Read more