comScore released its report on the U.K.‘s top Internet properties and top gaining properties for June, based on data collected through the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. comScore found the total U.K. online population to be higher than ever in June—some 31.7 million unique visitors, representing 63 percent of the total U.K. population age 15 and older.

The average user of the Internet in the U.K. spent almost 35 hours online during the month.

Google remained the most visited property in the U.K. with 27.7 million unique visitors in June, reaching 88 percent of the total U.K. online population, down slightly from May. Microsoft and eBay remained the second and third most visited properties in the U.K., with 26.8 million and 22.1 million unique visitors respectively.

Commented Bob Ivins, EVP of International Markets at comScore: “With Google and Microsoft each reaching more than 85 percent of the U.K. online audience, it’s fair to say that they have established a large online footprint. However, their leadership position in the U.K. is not without competition, as sites are emerging all the time—Facebook being the prime current example—helping ensure that the larger players are kept on their toes and are spurred to continue to innovate.”

Almost all of the top twenty most visited properties incurred only modest changes in visitation levels from the previous month, although there were significant gains for Adobe and bebo.com. The fastest growing property in the top twenty was Adobe Sites, whose traffic swelled 11 percent as a result of the release of an Acrobat Reader update. Social networking site bebo.com was the second biggest growing property in the top twenty, with its traffic increasing by 7 percent.

 
The fastest growing property in June was The Mozilla Organization—driven by the continued uptake of and updates to the Firefox Web browser—with 41 percent more unique visitors than in May. Sustained interest in the television show Big Brother buoyed Channel 4’s online audience, as it was the second highest gainer, increasing 39 percent to 6.1 million unique visitors.

Rounding out the top three gainers was social networking site Facebook.com, as it continues its unchecked rise in popularity—growing a further 25 percent in June. Facebook.com is currently the 28th most popular property in the country, however if its growth continues in a similar vein to what it has been over the last 6 months, then it may enter the top twenty most visited properties in July.

Other notable gainers during June included The Weather Channel (up 12 percent) and travel sites TUI Group, First Choice Holidays PLC, British Airways and Lastminute.com (up 9, 8, 7 and 7 percent respectively); all enjoying gains as the dour British summer continued, and people’s thoughts turned to the impending holiday season.
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