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.
| December 2007 | January 2008 | Growth, YTY | |
| Total Audience | 183,619 | 184,239 | 0 |
| Taxes | 7,729 | 23,336 | 202 |
| Politics | 8,384 | 13,807 | 65 |
| Career Services | 49,150 | 64,144 | 31 |
| Real Estate | 32,747 | 41,991 | 28 |
| Ground/Cruise | 8,909 | 11,303 | 27 |
| Car Rental | 4,065 | 5,130 | 26 |
| Computer Software | 26,756 | 33,548 | 25 |
| Financial Information | 32,109 | 39,792 | 24 |
| Hotels/Resorts | 25,131 | 30,958 | 23 |
| Online Travel | 34,581 | 42,530 | 23 |
| Source: comScore | |||