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Web users were out enmasse this past Mother's Day weekend. Nielsen//NetRatings released a study that showed the amount of traffic to shopping-based search engines rose, in some cases, as much as 91%. The study also found that nearly 13 million unique visitors used online shopping directories and search engines.

AOL Shopping saw an increase of 91% of visitors during the weekend in question. The weekend before found 718000 visitors at AOL's shopping portal. Mother's Day weekend saw traffic increase on AOL to 1.4 million visitors. Froogle, Google's shopping search site, saw an increase of traffic by 80%

"The strong performance of comparison shopping sites during the last six months provides yet one more indication of how search technology has gone mainstream," said Leslie Marable, senior analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "Comparison shopping sites address shoppers' needs to find the perfect Mother's Day gift at the best price."

The following is a table of the top 5 sites that saw traffic growth during the period measured by Nielsen//NetRatings.

Brand or Channel Unique Audience (000) 5/2/2004 Unique Audience (000) 4/25/2004 % Growth 1. AOL Shopping 1374 718 91% 2. Froogle 613 340 80% 3. MSN Shopping 901 668 35% 4. MySimon 311 274 14% 5. Quixtar 285 263 8%

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