Patriotic, religious Web sites fly high

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By George A. Chidi Jr.

(IDG) -- More than a million United States residents visited the Web site of a group organized to pray for President Bush in October -- and millions more viewed sites for flag decals or other patriotic art, according to research from Jupiter Media Metrix.

A separate report from Nielsen/NetRatings found overall U.S. Internet use climbed 4 percent in October compared to September, and increased about 15 percent year-over-year. About 115.2 million people actively surfed the Web at least once in October, according to the report. The 4-percent October increase is the largest one-month jump in U.S. Internet use for the year.

Companies controlling the most popular Web sites continued to dominate the research results in both surveys. Topping both lists are the Web properties of AOL Time Warner. The media conglomerate owns the America Online Web sites, the Moviefone online ticket ordering service, the online map service MapQuest.com, the WinAmp MP3 music site, CNN.com, the Time magazine sites, various cable television stations, the Warner Brothers film and music divisions and Netscape Communications.

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Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN (Microsoft Network) Web sites, and the Terra Networks SA Web properties of Terra Lycos round out the top group.

In the category of fast growth, new Web sites focusing on patriotism and prayer captured the public's attention, compared to the emphasis on news, charity and victims' aid for new sites in September, according to the Jupiter report.

Patriotic newcomer sites include usaflagdirect.com, a flag sales site that registered about 3.5 million hits in October, according to Jupiter. The site uses pop-under advertising like the ubiquitous X10 camera ads -- X10 ranks fifth on Jupiter's overall hit list. Another flag site, deskflag.com, offers a download that generates an animated American flag on users' computer screens. The site attracted 3.1 million unique visitors, while the site of Deskflag's creator Tiger Technologies drew in 2.4 million unique visitors.

The site of the Presidential Prayer team, presidentialprayerteam.org, received 1.1 million unique visitors in October, according to Jupiter. The goal of the nonprofit group is to gather 1 percent of the U.S. population, or about 2.8 million people, into a national daily prayer effort for President Bush and his executive staff. The group had planned to launch the initiative in January, but moved the time table up three months after the September 11 attacks, according to a message on the site.

Home Internet use grew faster than office use in the U.S., according to the Nielsen report. Home use increased 14 percent year-over-year to more than 103.7 million Internet users, while the number of office workers using the Internet increased 11 percent in October to more than 40.1 million.

About 62 percent of people in the U.S. had Internet access in October, compared to 57 percent last year, according to Nielsen. Internet users are logging on more frequently and staying online longer, according to the report. Web surfers spent an average of 19 hours online in October, about a 9 percent increase over last year. Web surfers logged on an average of 35 times in the month, compared to 33 sessions in October 2000.

NetRatings announced plans in October to purchase Jupiter Media Metrix in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $71.2 million.