Bush still leads race for clicks on the Web

Gore campaign points to competing report showing more page views for VP's site

By Eddie Medina, Boston.com Staff, 11/01/00

Less than a week before the presidential election, Texas Gov. Geore W. Bush is still attracting more people to his campaign Web sites than Vice President Al Gore is bringing to his, according to Internet traffic rating service Nielsen//NetRatings.

 CAMPAIGN TRAFFIC

Three Internet ratings companies have weighed in on the presidential campaign:

Alexa Research
Found Gore's sites had more page views that Bush's.
Read report

Nielsen//NetRatings
Found more people visited Bush's sites in October.
Read report

Media Metrix
Found more people visited Bush's sites in September.
Read report



   
But research by a competing Internet ratings firm suggest users are more active on Gore's sites because they're spending more time there.

NetRatings, a subsidiary of the Nielsen company which rates television viewership, reported yesterday that 285,000 people logged on to Bush's Web sites, GeorgeBush.com and GeorgeWBush.com, during the week ending October 22.

Traffic to Gore's Web sites AlGore.com and AlGore2000.com was slightly lower, with 232,000 visitors during the same period.

In response to NetRatings' findings, Ben Green, Gore's director of Internet operations, noted a report by Alexa Research, which showed Gore's Web site actually registered more page views than Bush.

Alexa's findings suggest that the users on Gore's sites are actually more active, or that Gore's sites may offer more content.

According to Alexa Research, visitors to Gore's sites viewed an estimated 20.6 million pages since August, compared to 15.1 million pageviews at Bush's site. Alexa reported yesterday that since July, Gore sites have racked up 55 million page views, eclipsing the 33.9 million on Bush's sites.

"We offer a better user experience and a more compelling message," Green said.

In terms of the numbers of Web users, Vice President Gore has trailed his rival Bush, the Republican Governor of Texas, throughout the 2000 campaign for president.

Gore, the Democratic nominee for president, typically draws support from demographic groups who don't make up the majority of Internet users.

NetRatings' findings are backed up by another Internet traffic ratings company, Media Metrix, which reported that during the month of September both of Gore's sites combined for less traffic than that on Bush's sites. During September AlGore.com and AlGore2000.com combined for 488,000 unique visitors according to Media Metrix. By contrast, GeorgeWBush.com registered 545,000 visitors during the same period.

Matthew Work, an Alexa vice president, said the Alexa's methods differ from those of NetRatings and MediaMetrix.

NetRatings, www.nielsen-netratings.com, gathers its figures through software placed on the computers of 70,000 Internet users which tracks the users' movements around the Internet. NetRatings uses those numbers to estimate traffic on a Web site. Media Metrix, www.mediametrix.com, uses similar methods.

Alexa also uses software placed on a user's computer, but its pool of users is made up of more people who access the Internet at work, Work said. Alexa also estimates traffic on individual sites differently than its competitors, he said. The presidential report countd page views rather than the number of individual users visiting a site.

The Bush campaign was contacted, but did not respond.

Tobe Berkovitz, a Boston University professor who teaches a class on political campaigning, warned against putting too much political stock into Web traffic.

"I do not think hits on a Web site are a leading indicator," he said. "My guess is people who are hitting those sites are either strong supporters or strong non-supporters."

Berkovitz did not think people were logging on at this point in the election to decide which candidate they like best. "The undecided voters don't care enough to click on a Web site," he said.