As the presidential primaries kicked off, the politics category jumped 65% to 13.8 mln visitors as Americans went online for news coverage and opinions and to visit candidate Web sites. BarackObama.com led the category with 2.2 mln visitors, up 429% from December, followed by HillaryClinton.com with 1.1 mln visitors (up 202%). On the Republican side, MikeHuckabee.com attracted 937,000 visitors, up 96%, while JohnMcCain.com grew 261% to 596,000 visitors. The career category was led by CareerBuilder LLC with 24.8 mln visitors, followed by Yahoo! HotJobs with 17.4 mln visitors and Monster with 17.1 mln visitors. Concerns over a shaky real estate market, along with those resolving to move residences in 2008, precipitated a 28% gain to 42 mln visitors to the real estate category in January 2008. Move Network led the category with 10.1 mln visitors (up 49%), followed by Yahoo! Real Estate with 4.6 mln visitors (50%), and Rent.com with 3.5 mln visitors (up 51%). Travel-related sites experienced an increase in traffic as people looked to escape the winter doldrums and take advantage of post-holiday travel deals. Ground/cruise sites gained 27% to 11.3 mln visitors, while car rental sites grew 26% to 5.1 mln visitors, and hotels/resorts gained 23% to nearly 31 mln visitors.

---