Taxes Occupied Net Users In January

Early income tax filers seeking refunds likely powered traffic to several tax-related websites last month, judging by sharp jumps in their traffic.

With the holiday season in the rearview mirror, people switched their look ahead, to the impassable barrier of the Internal Revenue Service.

Analytics firm comScore said sites tracked in its Tax category saw over 23 million visitors in January. IRS.gov pulled in 12.5 million of those visitors during the month.

Tax preparation also attracted attention. Filing service TaxACT and preparation service H&R Block drew 5.8 million and 5.3 million visitors in January, respectively.

Another matter of politics picked up attention online, as the Presidential primary season continued in earnest. The surprising Democratic battles between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton translated to online interest.

The former First Lady could only muster half the visitors the Senator from Illinois pulled in to his site. Barack Obama brought in 2.2 million uniques in January; Hillary Clinton had 1.1 million.