Yahoo!, AOL and MSN remained the world's most popular web properties in October but music site Napster was the star performer, defying legal difficulties to rise 23 notches on the global index, an industry monitor said today.
The latest rankings by ACNielsen eRatings.com also showed gains by Amazon, CNET Networks, eUniverse Network and RJB Telecom, while Lycos Networks moved into fourth place in the index, dislodging Microsoft which fell to fifth.
"Napster's remarkable growth, even in the face of legal difficulties, is testimony to the appeal of peer-to-peer, genuinely interactive sites," David Day, director of analytics at ACNielsen eRatings.com said. "Entertainment sites in general have the potential to do well at this time of the year, with more indoor leisure time available to net surfers," he said.
Napster, which rocketed into 22nd place, is facing a lawsuit from Universal Music Group and the Recording Industry Association of America, aimed at shutting down the website. The site, which up to now has been free, allows any Internet user to swap music files compressed in the MP3 format.
Of the top 25 properties, CNET was the second biggest mover in the survey, rising eight places on the back of its acquisition of ZDNet.
The ACNielsen survey covers 18 countries, representing 80% of the global Internet audience of nearly 300 million individuals. Internet usage by home-based users rose in October in terms of hours spent surfing, number of sessions and other measures.
"The European online market is still driving this growth and as the market matures we can expect further convergence of the European and US markets," Day said.
