Apple Fastest Growing Top Web Brand

Apple grew the fastest in terms of traffic among the top ten Web brands in the month of November, according to a survey by Nielsen//NetRatings that was released Tuesday. The company's Web site saw a 57 percent increase in traffic year-over-year, driven by its iTunes Music service.

Google and Amazon also recorded significant growth, with increases of 29 and 16 percent, respectively. However, the biggest Web property on the list is still Yahoo, with 103.9 million visitors and ten percent growth in traffic.

Although third in terms of total visitors with 91.3 million visitors, MSN grew the slowest out of the ten companies with a paltry two percent growth. The story was similar for Microsoft, with 96.1 million visitors and eight percent growth. This was ahead of only AOL, which grew four percent year-over-year.

"Among the top Web brands, fierce competition for share of online visitors continues to be a catalyst for the launch of new products and features," Nielsen//NetRatings senior media analyst Gerry Davidson said. "These additions appear to be spearheading much of the top Web brand growth, because they keep visitors interested and engaged."

Rounding out the top five in growth was MapQuest, with 35 million users and 13 percent growth, and Real, with 34.3 million users and 12 percent growth.

Nielsen//NetRatings also took a look at the fastest growing Web properties overall and gave that title to PhotoBucket, an online photo hosting site. The site's traffic grew a staggering 1,492 percent, from 983,000 unique users in November 2004 to 15.6 million in November 2005.

The success of social networking sites were also apparent, with MySpace, Facebook and Memegen.net recording increases of 752, 530 and 446 percent respectively.

"Sites that strongly appeal to generation Y are those at which they can control the content," Davidson added. "They provide a desirable service in an entertaining format. Thus it is not surprising that many of the fastest growing sites fall into the social networking, blogging, and online member community genres."