SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) announced the launch of Yahoo! AdLabs, a group focused on providing scientific leadership to the industry and accelerating innovation in digital advertising products through Yahoo! Labs (http://labs.yahoo.com/), one of the world’s premier industrial research organizations.

“Yahoo! Labs has been instrumental in developing Yahoo!’s advertising products, laying a foundation of scientific research and innovative data analysis, supporting everything from the world’s most advanced display advertising marketplace to the world’s most effective ad targeting capabilities,” said Dr. Prabhakar Raghavan, Yahoo!’s chief scientist and head of Yahoo! Labs. “AdLabs will build on this success and break new ground in combining scientific rigor with a deep understanding of the practical needs of marketers.”

Since its founding in 2005, Yahoo! Labs has produced powerful studies on online advertising, created the new scientific discipline of Computational Advertising, and generated numerous insights into consumer behavior and advertising metrics (see addendum for a sample of recent projects).

With the launch of AdLabs, Yahoo! also released the latest results of its breakthrough, multi-part study of online advertising in the retail industry, that uses a controlled experiment conducted at unprecedented scale to quantify the effects of one of the most important new levers available to online marketers in 2011, hyperlocal ad targeting. The results included:

- Hyperlocal targeting of a retail display campaign generated more than five times return-on-ad-spend, measured by sales lift at the retailer.
- 75% of the total return in this phase of the study was generated by in-store purchases.
- Customers who live within two miles of one of the retailer’s stores represented 10.6% of the audience seeing the ads, but generated 56% of the revenue.
- Return-on-ad-spend was four times the spend for customers living within five miles of a store, and 21 times the spend for customers living within two miles of a store.

“Successful campaigns change perceptions about brands and increase sales. Marketers need new, breakthrough, scientifically-tested methodologies to drive these important metrics,” said Ken Mallon, vice president and head of Yahoo! AdLabs. “Yahoo! has the scale to measure the impact of many campaigns and the breadth of expertise to produce the new models and innovations that will move the digital advertising industry forward.”

“As media models fragment, so too do the models for understanding their effectiveness. At the same time, with more people doing more online and ad spend going up, marketers need answers more than ever,” said Ted McConnell, executive vice president, Advertising Research Foundation. “Yahoo!, with its diverse but integrated palette of options, provides a great Petri dish for experimenting with new measures. I, for one, am delighted that Yahoo! is taking this challenge head on, and I feel certain the entire industry will benefit.”

For more information on Yahoo! AdLabs, please visit the Yahoo! Advertising blog (http://www.yadvertisingblog.com/blog/).

At Yahoo! Labs Winter Science Week on February 1-4, 2011, Yahoo! gathered the company’s leading scientists to examine the most important trends and questions about the future of the Web. Research at the event showcased the company’s expertise in the field of online marketing and advertising – most notably in Yahoo!’s ability to rigorously measure and quantify the effects of advertising.

Highlighted topics include:

Location, Location, Location: Understanding the Effectiveness of Online Advertising in Driving In-Store Retail Sales – Using a clinical trial-like methodology never before conducted at true Internet scale (more than 3 million users), this multi-part, ongoing study quantifies the return on investment of online advertising campaigns. The most recent results focused on the impact of hyperlocal targeting on in-store and online sales, finding that hyperlocal targeting of a retail display campaign generated more than five times return-on-ad-spend, with 75% of the total return generated by in-store purchases.

Birds of a Feather, Shop Together – Measuring the extent to which friends’ behaviors predicts your own, this study found that in several consumer domains the effect is substantial, complementing traditional demographic and behavioral predictors.

Reach, Frequency, and Relevance – This study examined the impact of frequency, or number of times someone is exposed to an ad, on user engagement. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the experiment, conducted on the Yahoo! homepage, found that individuals are just as likely to click on the 20th impression as they would the first impression.

The Demographics of Web Surfing – This project examined the demographic composition of the top 100,000 domains on the Web, finding numerous prominent sites to have highly homogeneous audiences, which allowed researchers to uncover insights into consumer behavior.

Ad Relevance and Context – This eye-tracking study revealed that the relationship between editorial content on a webpage and the content of an advertisement has a direct effect on the amount of time a person spends looking at an advertisement. Further, when the editorial and advertising content are related, ad recall also increased.

Who Searches for What and How? – In a paper to be released at the 2011 WSDM Conference in Hong Kong, Yahoo! Labs conducted an in-depth segmentation analysis of an anonymous query log of 2.3 million Yahoo! users to evaluate and identify online search behavior in terms of who users might be (demographics), what they search for (query topics), and how they search (session analysis). A sampling of the full results revealed that:
- People with higher educational levels made fewer navigational queries.
- Searches related to actors and actresses were about three times higher in L.A. than in any other region.
- San Francisco had the highest percentage of travel queries out of any region.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is an innovative technology company that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. Yahoo! keeps more than half a billion consumers worldwide connected to what matters to them most, and delivers powerful audience solutions to advertisers through its unique combination of Science + Art + Scale. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.com) or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world reported the top 15 ad networks based on their reach among U.S. Internet users in December 2009. The ranking showed that AOL Advertising remains the top ad network, reaching 187 million U.S. Internet users, or 91 percent of the total audience, followed by Yahoo! Network (180.9 million) and Google Ad Network (178.1 million). The fastest growing ad network by audience reach among the top 15 was Microsoft Media Network U.S., which grew 31 percent versus year ago, followed by Collective Network (up 22 percent) and Audience Science (up 16 percent).

Top 15 Ad Networks

December 2009 vs. December 2008 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations

Source: comScore Media Metrix

Total Unique Visitors (000)

Dec-2008    Dec-2009    % Change

Total Internet : Total Audience  190,650     205,709         8

AOL Advertising                                173,804     187,023         8

Yahoo! Network                                 165,879     180,909         9

Google Ad Network                              157,131     178,134        13

ValueClick Networks                            159,420     170,774         7

Microsoft Media Network US                     126,158     165,470        31

Specific Media                                 153,079     165,230         8

FOX Audience Network                               N/A     156,981       N/A

24/7 Real Media                                142,448     155,856         9

Collective Network                             126,294     153,905        22

interCLICK                                     137,076     148,989         9

Tribal Fusion                                  139,778     147,169         5

AudienceScience (formerly Revenue Science)     126,261     146,428        16

Traffic Marketplace                            147,024     144,115         -2

Adconion Media Group                           142,133     141,235         -1

Turn, Inc                                      123,150     138,297        12

“Ad networks continue to be a powerful mechanism for delivering a large audience online, with eight different networks reaching at least 75 percent of the entire U.S. online population,” said comScore senior vice president Jeff Hackett. “Increasingly, however, ad networks are improving their capability for reaching more targeted audiences as well, which delivers enhanced value to advertisers and helps sustain higher CPMs for the channel. 2010 should bring us continued innovation and performance from this growing online sector.”

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

WASHINGTON – Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) released a beta version of a new consumer tool called Ad Interest Manager, which takes transparency in online advertising to a new level for building user trust. Ad Interest Manager http://privacy.yahoo.com/aim is a central place where Yahoo! visitors can see a concise summary of their online activity and make easy, constructive choices about their exposure to interest-based advertising served from the Yahoo! Ad Network.

“Ads tailored to users’ interests make online experiences more compelling and user-focused, and the new tool Yahoo! is launching today will provide transparency into how Yahoo!’s interest-based advertising works,” said Yahoo! Vice President of Policy and Head of Privacy, Anne Toth. “Yahoo! is committed to providing consumers with increased transparency and control when they are online. Ad Interest Manager will show users what interests we think they have, and also let them edit and change those interests to reflect the most up-to-date information.” Anne Toth also pointed out: “Importantly, users who don’t want interest-based ads can turn them off completely.”

Yahoo!’s new Ad Interest Manager tool:

* Provides a central point where Yahoo! visitors can assert even greater control over their online experience.
* Gives visitors an unparalleled view into the information used to deliver interest-based advertising.
* Shows the visitor both Yahoo!’s educated guesses about their interests and a summary of observations, along with other information they have provided.
* Provides a list of specific interest categories that Yahoo! has placed a user into and lets people turn those categories off.
* Allows people who don’t want to see interest-based ads to turn them off entirely.

“Yahoo! has long provided its users with products and services for free, thanks to a business model based almost entirely on advertising, and we’ve found that consumers are more likely to click on advertising that speaks directly to them and their interests,” said Yahoo! Vice President and General Manager of Display Advertising, David Zinman. “With the introduction of Ad Interest Manager, users can not only get a better understanding of how the process works, but they can also communicate better with Yahoo! and our advertisers about what most interests them.”

Yahoo!’s Ad Interest Manager is currently available in beta in the U.S. and will soon be made available to UK and European users. Planned future enhancements to the Ad Interest Manager will also let users add categories of interest that Yahoo! may have missed.

To see what the new Ad Interest Manager looks like and how it works, please visit http://privacy.yahoo.com/aim.

Yahoo! was one of the first companies to implement a layered privacy center http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/details.html model more than eight years ago, which provides people with a central place to understand and control their privacy online, as well as their options when it comes to the use of personal data. This information is coupled with our industry-leading data-retention policy http://ycorpblog.com/2008/12/17/your-data-goes-incognito/, which anonymizes most Web log data within 90 days. The policy also strives to ensure that Yahoo! retains data only long enough to serve the business and create the highest-quality user experiences, while simultaneously maintaining the ability to fight fraud, secure systems, and meet legal obligations.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through its innovative technology and engaging content and services, making it one of the most trafficked Internet destinations and a world-class online media company. Yahoo!’s vision is to be the center of people’s online lives by delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit http://pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal http://yodel.yahoo.com.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. & REDMOND, Wash. – Yahoo! and Microsoft announced an agreement that will improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry. In simple terms, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

For Web users and advertisers, this deal will accelerate the pace and breadth of innovation by combining both companies’ complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising. Users will find what they care about faster and with more personal relevance. Microsoft’s competitive search platforms will lead to more value for advertisers, better results for Web publishers, and increased innovation and efficiency across the Internet.

Under this agreement, Yahoo! will focus on its core business of providing consumers with great experiences with the world’s favorite online destinations and Web products.

“This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry, and I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development,” said Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. “Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences.”

Providing a viable alternative to advertisers, this deal will combine Yahoo! and Microsoft search marketplaces so that advertisers no longer have to rely on one company that dominates more than 70 percent of all search. With the addition of Yahoo!’s search volume, Microsoft will achieve the size and scale required to unleash competition and innovation in the market, for consumers as well as advertisers.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said the agreement will provide Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, the scale necessary to more effectively compete, attracting more users and advertisers, which in turn will lead to more relevant ads and search results.

“Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company,” said Ballmer. “Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search.”

“This deal fits the long-term strategic direction of Yahoo! to remain the world’s leading online media company and Carol Bartz has the full and unanimous support of the Yahoo! Board behind this deal,” said Roy Bostock, chairman, Yahoo! Inc. “This is a significant opportunity for us. Microsoft is an industry innovator in search and it is a great opportunity for us to focus our investments in other areas critical to our future.”

The key terms of the agreement are as follows:

- The term of the agreement is 10 years;
- Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms;
- Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology;
- Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process;
- Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force;
- Yahoo! will innovate and “own” the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology;
- Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites;
- Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O&O sites during the first five years of the agreement; and
- Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.
- Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country;
- At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million; and
- The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

The agreement does not cover each company’s Web properties and products, email, instant messaging, display advertising, or any other aspect of the companies’ businesses. In those areas, the companies will continue to compete vigorously.

The transaction will be subject to regulatory review. The agreement entered into today anticipates that the parties will enter into more detailed definitive agreements prior to closing. Microsoft and Yahoo! expect the agreement to be closely reviewed by the industry and government regulators, and welcome questions. The companies are hopeful that closing can occur in early 2010.

The companies have established a website at http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com to provide consumers, advertisers and publishers with additional information about the benefits of the agreement.

Yahoo! and Microsoft hosted a conference call with Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss the agreement. To listen to the call, please dial 1-866-515-2908 in the U.S. and Canada; +1-617-399-5122 international, reservation number: 47968026. A live webcast of the call can be accessed through Yahoo!’s Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/results.cfm. In addition, an archive of the webcast is available through the same link. An audio replay of the call will be available for two weeks following the conference call by calling 1-888-286-8010 in the U.S. and Canada; +1-617-801-6888 international, reservation number: 91217610.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq “YHOO”) is a leading global consumer brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is where millions of people go every day to see what is happening with the people and things that matter to them most. Yahoo! helps marketers reach that audience with its unique and compelling advertiser proposition. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit http://pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal at http://yodel.yahoo.com.

“Owned and Operated sites” refers to Yahoo!’s owned and operated online properties and services.

“Affiliate sites” refers to Yahoo!’s distribution network of third-party entities who have integrated Yahoo!’s advertising offerings into their websites or their other offerings.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) announced the pilot launch of Yahoo! My Display Ads, a self-serve display ad solution designed to help small and medium-sized businesses easily reach their target audiences on Yahoo! and its extended network of partner sites. Powered by Seattle-based AdReady, the service is designed to help a new segment of advertisers to reach Yahoo!’s 1651 million users in the U.S. with locally targeted display ads.

“Yahoo! My Display Ads allows small businesses to build on their search marketing with display campaigns that reach a targeted audience on some of the Internet’s most popular websites,” said Joanne Bradford, senior vice president North America Revenue and Market Development, Yahoo!. “This new solution provides an affordable and accessible option for businesses to run brand and performance campaigns that reach the local audiences that matter to them most.”

Advertisers of all sizes are able to take advantage of powerful geographic, channel and demographic targeting capabilities to reach local audiences that are most relevant to them through Yahoo!’s My Display Ads. By using a web-based, self-serve interface, advertisers can create and customize campaigns using more than 800 display templates. Additionally, advertisers can elect CPM or CPC-based pricing, catering to both branding and performance marketing goals. The new solution also helps advertisers track and manage campaign performance goals with daily reporting on key metrics, helping them optimize campaigns on the fly.

Yahoo! My Display Ads is an extension of a limited program Yahoo! and AdReady offered to a number of managed Yahoo! Small Business customers last year. Through this program, advertisers – such as Klaussnerhome, a local furniture store based in Greensboro, North Carolina – have tested the offering, experiencing positive results. Klaussnerhome, which previously relied heavily on traditional advertising mediums recently tested Yahoo! My Display Ads to promote its annual Memorial Day sale in Greensboro and the surrounding area.

Klaussnerhome experienced record sales and foot traffic, which it attributed directly to the advertising campaign it ran on Yahoo!. As a result, the furniture store continues to invest in online advertising. Klaussnerhome also plans to increase its budget to target larger markets such as Raleigh and Charlotte, both of which it was unable to reach through traditional media.

“AdReady’s partnership with Yahoo! will provide advertisers with direct access to high value advertising inventory from the largest provider of display advertising in the world,” said Aaron Finn, President and CEO, AdReady. “With Yahoo! My Display Ads, we hope to make display as easy, effective and accessible as search.”

To learn more about the launch of Yahoo! My Display Ads in the U.S., please visit: http://mydisplayads.yahoo.com.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com.

About AdReady

Seattle-based AdReady is an innovative advertising technology company making online display advertising as accessible and effective as search advertising. The company’s unique approach helps businesses of all sizes build effective online display campaigns based on proven creative and media plans, dramatically increasing an advertiser’s return on advertising spend. AdReady’s patent-pending solutions are ideal for advertisers, agencies and publishers. To learn how to build an effective online display campaign for your business, please visit www.adready.com.

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world today reported the top 25 ad networks based on their reach among U.S. Internet users in April 2009. The ranking showed that AOL’s Platform-A remains the top ad network, reaching nearly 176.5 million U.S. Internet users, or 91.5 percent of the total audience, followed by Yahoo! Network (167.1 million) and Google Ad Network (164.5 million). New ad network FOX Audience Network ranked sixth, reaching 149.2 million people. Several ad networks in the top 25 achieved double-digit growth during the past year, led by Turn Inc. (up 121 percent), CPX Interactive (up 88 percent) and 24/7 Real Media (up 48 percent).

______________________________________________________________________________
Top 25 Ad Networks

April 2009 vs. April 2008

Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations

Source: comScore Media Metrix

Total Unique Visitors (000)
Apr-2008        Apr-2009       % Change

Total Internet: Total Audience          190,728         192,875           1

Platform-A                              170,508         176,455           3
Yahoo! Network                          160,206         167,129           4
Google Ad Network                       155,882         164,518           6
ValueClick Networks                     140,930         160,307          14
Specific Media                          144,773         158,012           9
FOX Audience Network                        N/A         149,249         N/A
24/7 Real Media                          99,959         147,668          48
Traffic Marketplace                     114,682         143,519          25
Microsoft Media Network US              119,595         139,674          17
Tribal Fusion                           135,113         138,274           2
Casale Media – MediaNet                 127,184         137,884           8
interCLICK                              107,961         134,834          25
Turn, Inc                                60,617         134,028         121
Adconion Media Group                    117,965         133,498          13
CPX Interactive                          69,178         130,370          88
Collective Network by Collective Media   88,279         129,808          47
ADSDAQ by ContextWeb                     93,815         123,534          32
AudienceScience (formerly Revenue Science)  N/A         121,001         N/A
Burst Media                              89,670         116,727          30
Undertone Networks                       72,940          97,053          33
AdBrite                                  81,838          91,033          11
Pulse 360                                   N/A          82,574         N/A
Vibrant Media                            72,351          80,779          12
Adify                                       N/A          73,467         N/A
Kontera                                  52,159          72,870          40
______________________________________________________________________________

“Underscoring the growing importance of ad networks to the digital advertising economy, each of the top 25 ad networks has expanded its reach during the past year,” commented Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president. “It almost seems that new ad networks are emerging every day, each aimed at helping advertisers achieve their campaign objectives, whether it’s to deliver reach and frequency or to target a specific audience segment.”

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

AUSTIN, Texas – Click Forensics™, Inc. released industry pay-per-click (PPC) fraud figures for the fourth quarter 2008 from the search advertising industry’s leading independent click fraud reporting service – the Click Fraud Index® (www.ClickFraudIndex.com).

Now in its fourth year, the Click Fraud Index monitors and reports on data gathered from the Click Fraud Network™, which provides statistically significant industry PPC data collected from online advertising campaigns for both large and small companies across all the leading search engines. Key findings from data reported for Q4 2008 include:

* The overall industry average click fraud rate grew to 17.1 percent for Q4 2008. That’s up from 16.0 percent in Q3 2008 and from the 16.6 percent rate reported for Q4 2007.
* The average click fraud rate of PPC advertisements appearing on search engine content networks, including Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network, was 28.2 percent. That’s up from the 27.1 percent rate reported for Q3 2008 and down slightly from the 28.3 percent rate reported for Q4 2007.
* Traffic from botnets was responsible for 31.4 percent of all click fraud traffic in Q4 2008. That’s up from the 27.6 percent rate reported for Q3 2008 and the 22.0 percent rate reported for Q4 2007.
* In Q4 2008, the greatest percentage of click fraud originating from countries outside the U.S. came from Canada (7.4 percent), Germany (3.0 percent) and China (2.3 percent).

“Based on the data we tracked in Q4 2008, it seems that the online advertising industry is not immune to the growing tide of cybercrime during this recessionary period,” said Tom Cuthbert, president of Click Forensics. “Both the overall click fraud rate and the rate of click fraud originating from botnets were the highest ever in Q4 2008. In addition, we’ve started to see old schemes like click farms reemerge. Advertisers should pay close attention to these types of threats in their online campaigns throughout the year.”

The Click Fraud Index publishes data collected from the Click Fraud Network, the industry’s first independent third-party click fraud detection service dedicated to helping companies more accurately monitor their online advertising campaigns for pay-per-click fraud. Click fraud data is tracked and published on a quarterly basis for specific search providers, industries and trends. The service is unique in that it monitors online campaigns for click fraud by correlating data collected from search provider campaigns and the advertisers’ own web sites – providing the industry’s most accurate view of click fraud to date.

About Click Forensics, Inc.

Click Forensics is the industry leader in scoring, auditing and improving traffic quality for the online advertising community. Click Forensics provides traffic quality management solutions for online advertisers, publishers, and ad networks. The company also publishes the Click Fraud Index®, the top independent source of industry click fraud data. Click Forensics is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and is privately held with funding from Sierra Ventures, Austin Ventures and Shasta Ventures. More information on Click Forensics and its offerings is available at www.ClickForensics.com.

Click Fraud Index is a registered trademark of Click Forensics, Inc. Click Forensics and Click Fraud Network are trademarks of Click Forensics, Inc. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Halloween and Early Holiday Browsing Boost Traffic to Retail Sites

RESTON, VA, November 20, 2008 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for October 2008 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. The U.S. presidential election, Halloween and the approaching holiday season were significant drivers of Internet traffic for the month.

“The historic presidential race had millions of Americans glued to their computers for the latest news during the final stretch of the campaign,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “Prospective voters were able to get up-to-the minute information on candidates, important issues and the latest poll results as they prepared to check off the box in the voting booth on November 4.”

Politics Category Tops Fastest-Growing List in October

October saw a significant surge in traffic to the politics category, as Americans tuned in closely to the presidential and local congressional races. The category grew 40 percent to 28 million visitors in October, making it the fastest growing category for the month.

BarackObama.com was the most visited site in the category with 8.5 million visitors, up 59 percent versus the previous month, followed by JohnMcCain.com with 3.8 million visitors (up 29 percent). October marked the largest audiences of the season for both of the candidates. Other sites generating substantially higher traffic in the month included: CatholicVote.com (up 410 percent to 1.5 million visitors), GOP.com (up 111 percent to 1.2 million visitors), and Factcheck.org (up 96 percent to 1 million visitors). Voting advocacy sites VoteforChange (up 62 percent to 2.4 million visitors) and RocktheVote.com (up 46 percent to 1.1 million visitors) also saw strong gains.

Saturday Night Live’s election comedy sketches, including Tina Fey’s popular impersonation of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, helped NBC Universal rank as one of the top 10 gaining properties for the month. NBC Universal’s online channel for Saturday Night Live (SNL) content surged 85 percent to 4.4 million visitors in October.

Approaching Holidays and Halloween Cause Traffic Boost at Retail Categories
The combination of Halloween and the looming holiday shopping season resulted in strong traffic increases to several retail categories in October.

Retail – apparel sites grew 13 percent to more than 67 million visitors as people searched for Halloween costumes, early holiday deals and the latest seasonal apparel in October. The category was led by BuyCostumes.com, which witnessed a 107-percent increase to 9.5 million visitors. Several other costume-related sites also experienced gains in October, including CostumeSuperCenter.com (up 110 percent to 2.6 million visitors) and Costumzee.com (up 161 percent to 2.1 million visitors).

In addition to costume retailers, several other apparel retailers experienced strong traffic growth during the month, including Zappos.com (up 18 percent to 5.1 million visitors), Gap Online (up 24 percent to 4.2 million visitors) and AE.com (up 18 percent to 3.3 million visitors).

With the holidays quickly approaching, traffic to the retail – toys category surged 17 percent to more than 25 million visitors as Americans searched early for this year’s top toys. Toysrus sites led the category with 9.3 million visitors, a gain of 28 percent, followed by Barbie with 3.4 million visitors (up 10 percent) and The LEGO Group with 2.7 million visitors (up 22 percent). Several other popular toy brands also experienced double-digit growth in October, including AmericanGirl.com (up 51 percent), Fisher Price (up 43 percent) and LeapFrog.com (up 90 percent).

Top 50 Properties

Google Sites continued to lead as the most visited property in October with 147 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 144.9 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 123.5 million visitors. All of the top ten properties maintained their positions from September. New arrivals to the ranking this month included NBC Universal, which entered at position #33 with nearly 25 million visitors and JPMorgan Chase Property, which rose to position #41 with the addition of Washington Mutual, bringing the property’s combined audience to more than 23 million visitors.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

Platform-A led the October Ad Focus ranking reaching 91 percent of the 190.6 million Americans online. Yahoo! Network followed reaching 86 percent and Google Ad Network captured the third position reaching 83 percent of Americans online. ValueClick Networks moved up one position to #4 reaching 82 percent of online users and Traffic Marketplace rose one position to #8 reaching 74 percent.
____________________________________________________________________
comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)

October 2008 vs. September 2008

Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations

Source: comScore Media Metrix

Total Unique Visitors (000)

Sep-08 Oct-08 % Change Rank by

Unique Visitors

Total Internet: Total Audience 189,468 190,616 1 N/A

TheStreet.com Sites 4,135 10,550 155 101

Spencer Gifts, LLC. 2,077 5,058 144 231

HULU.COM 2,850 5,342 87 214

Healthgrades 2,894 5,034 74 234

Everyday Health 14,930 25,781 73 31

BARACKOBAMA.COM 5,350 8,515 59 131

Cablevision 6,049 9,571 58 112

NBC Universal 16,034 24,896 55 33

Kayak.com Network 5,141 7,860 53 144

JPMorgan Chase Property 15,506 23,142 49 41
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*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in October 2008

TABLE 2
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comScore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)

October 2008 vs. September 2008

Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations

Source: comScore Media Metrix

Total Unique Visitors (000)

Sep-08 Oct-08 % Change

Total Internet: Total Audience 189,468 190,616 1

Politics 20,081 28,016 40

Retail – Flowers/Gifts/Greetings 33,659 40,358 20

Retail – Toys 21,461 25,195 17

e-cards 28,537 33,377 17

Entertainment – Humor 25,486 29,797 17

Retail – Mall 26,509 30,742 16

Gay/Lesbian 2,771 3,189 15

Retail – Apparel 59,354 67,144 13

Teens 28,765 32,505 13

Auto – Manufacturer 22,154 25,015 13

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Please visit the following link for Tables 3 & 4: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2593

About comScore Media Metrix

comScore Media Metrix provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. comScore Media Metrix reports are used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers. comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate

NEW YORK – Emmy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award winner Jon Hamm of AMC’s original drama series Mad Men, today joined Yahoo!’s Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang, President Sue Decker and Executive Vice President of Yahoo! U.S. Hilary Schneider for the 5th annual Advertising Week conference in New York to announce the launch of APT from Yahoo!. Formerly known as AMP!, APT from Yahoo! is an intelligent innovation in online media, a digital advertising solution that streamlines the process of planning, buying and optimizing display advertising. APT is designed to simplify the process of buying and selling ads online while connecting all the market players – publishers, advertisers, agencies, networks, partners and developers – from a unified platform to do business more efficiently and effectively. The platform is rolling out as planned in phases beginning with publishers the San Francisco Chronicle of Hearst Newspapers and San Jose Mercury News of MediaNews Group.

“The advertising landscape has changed dramatically since the days when Don Draper was roaming the halls of Sterling Cooper,” said Jerry Yang. “While Mad Men celebrates the Madison Avenue of 40 years ago, APT from Yahoo! clearly represents the future.”

As a Web-based solution with the potential to allow unprecedented ease of cross-selling across the largest open network of publishers, advertisers, ad networks and agencies from a single integrated interface, APT is a single platform for connected digital advertising, including ad serving, ad network and ad exchange. It is designed to streamline advertisers’ ad-buying process for multiple accounts across multiple publishers, and enable creative testing and campaign optimization. It is also intended to help advertisers precisely yet easily identify audiences through geographic, demographic and interest-based targeting while enabling publishers to better monetize their content as well as making better connections across the Web.

“One of the major benefits of APT from Yahoo! is the fact that it’s an open system, designed to enable advertisers to reach their audiences in their favorite places across the Web, and publishers to monetize inventory across the broadest possible demand channels,” said Sue Decker. “As we transform the advertising marketplace, we’re excited to have key members of the Newspaper Consortium, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News, lead the way in this historic journey.”

For publishers like the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News, APT is designed to improve monetization capabilities and increase advertising revenue with solutions targeted at accelerating the ability to take advantage of premium brand and performance-based advertising. Key benefits include:

* Fostering a more transparent marketplace through the ability to connect to new business partners for cross-selling;
* Providing ad selection and inventory management tools to match relevant ads to marketers’ target audience; and
* Allowing publishers to manage their own private networks.

“The Newspaper Consortium’s open, collaborative and exciting partnership with Yahoo! is enabling a crucial transformation in the newspaper industry,” said George Irish, President, Hearst Newspapers. “With this next-generation platform we can realize the powerful combination of Yahoo!’s technology innovations, national reach and partner network with the Consortium’s rich local content, sales forces and local market expertise.”

“When Yahoo! showed us the platform’s potential in February this year, the Newspaper Consortium was impressed by Yahoo!’s commitment and investment in a game-changing technology that would significantly advance our efforts to monetize the Web,” said William Dean Singleton, Vice Chairman and CEO, MediaNews Group. “Seven months later, I am very proud to announce that Yahoo! has executed, and we are jointly accelerating toward fully using the platform to aggregate inventory, target relevant audiences and drive revenue growth.”

Some of the initial capabilities featured in the new platform include:

* Guaranteed cross-selling with pre-defined selling rules
* Ad Exchange for non-guaranteed inventory
* Advanced audience targeting techniques based upon behavior and geography
* Inventory lookup and forecasting across individual and partner sites
* Creative workflow automation and personalization
* Powerful rate card tools for improved yield management
* Filters for better controls around creatives
* Flexible and powerful APIs
* Federated ad call to support multiple ad formats

Yahoo! has developed a systematic integration plan for adding other Newspaper Consortium partners onto APT throughout this year and into next year. APT is a significant component of the unique and deep collaboration between Yahoo! and America’s newspapers. Launched in 2006 with 176 newspapers across the United States, the strategic partnership to create one of the largest and most comprehensive advertising networks in the online industry now comprises 35 media companies spanning 784 newspapers.

Yahoo! will start to make the platform available to other parties including advertisers, publishers, networks and agencies in 2009.

Additional information on APT is available at http://apt.yahoo.com. For press materials including executive bios, APT screen shots and images visit http://apt.yahoo.com/newsworthy.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com.