Wel come

With spring arriving and the first-time homebuyers tax credit about to expire at the end of April, Americans looked to home sites for home furnishing, decorating and gardening tips. The category grew 10% during April 2010, to 48 million visitors.

ow Home and Garden (up 4%), iVillage Home and Garden (up 24 %), and About.com Home and Garden (up 11%) were among the top properties in the category. The Home Depot, Inc., a retail site in the home furnishings subcategory, ranked as a top-gaining property during the month, growing 12% to 12.6 million visitors.

Following the home and tax categories, the beauty/fashion/style category saw an 8% increase in April, as 47.5 million Americans browsed spring fashion trends and beauty tips.Among the top properties were Glam Style, Stylelist Sites (up 7%), and Hearst Beauty & Fashion Network (up 37%). Allure.com was one of the category’s big winners, as visitation surged 214% to 717,000 visitors during the month.

It is also worth noting that as proms, religious holidays, and other spring occasions took place, Americans turned to the web for posting photos to share with family and friends. More than half of all US internet users visited a photo sharing site during April 2010, representing an increase of 3% to 112.7 million visitors.

The arrival of spring means the arrival of the baseball season and hockey playoffs. MLB.com had the biggest monthly percentage increase in unique visitors, 67%, receiving about 13.6 million unique visitors and earning 102nd place in overall unique visitors. NHL Network had the second-highest percentage increase in unique visitors, 35%, with about 6.1 million unique visitors, good for 232nd place.