Today, comScore released its December rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in Canada based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

Retail sites showed strong growth as online holiday shopping reached a fevered pitch in December, said Brent Bernie, president of comScore Media Metrix, comScore Canada. Online commerce has become an increasingly important component of total consumer spending, and retailers have also been offering very attractive incentives this season to draw even more online consumers to their sites.

Top Gaining Site Categories for December

With holiday shopping on Canadians minds, retail sites dominated the top-gaining site category rankings for December. The consumer goods category rose 70 percent to nearly 5 million visitors, while the consumer electronics category jumped 15 percent to 9.4 million visitors, led by Futureshop.ca Sites with 5.4 million visitors (up 39 percent).

Greetings sites also grew in December. The e-cards category experienced a 25-percent increase to 8 million visitors, while the flowers/gifts/greetings category gained 12 percent to 6.3 million visitors.

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Top Gaining Properties for December

Bolstered by the popularity of its viral holiday greeting site ElfYourself.com, OfficeMax surged 395 percent to 2.7 million visitors, making it the top-gaining property for the month.

Photo-sharing site Slide.com increased 39 percent to 2.1 million visitors in December, while social networking destination Skyrock Network jumped 32 percent to 1.9 million visitors.

Online holiday shopping activity saw Best Buy Sites jump 32 percent to 6.8 million visitors, while Wal-Mart saw a 15-percent increase to 4.2 million visitors. The preparation of holiday meals also seemed to be foremost on Canadian minds, with Kraft Foods increasing by 27 percent to 2.9 million visitors.

*Ranking based on the top 100 Canadian properties in December 2007.

** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Top 25 Properties for December

Microsoft Sites maintained its position as the top property with nearly 22.5 million visitors, reaching 94 percent of the Canadian online population. Microsoft was followed closely by Google Sites with 22.3 million visitors, Yahoo! Sites with 16.3 million visitors and Facebook.com with 15.4 million visitors.

Driven by holiday shopping, Apple Inc. and Best Buy Sites both gained several spots in the December rankings, while The Weather Network Meteomedia (#12) and Telus Sites (#24) also moved up several positions.