JUXTCONSULT INDIA ONLINE 2006 IDENTIFIES INDIA'S LEADING WEBSITES ACROSS MOST POPULAR SERVICES AVAILED ON THE NET

• Yahoo is the biggest online brand in India, tops for Email and online dating
• Bharatmatrimony and Shaadi slug it out for the top matrimonial site
• Naukri leads the online job search domain
• Google is the king of information search
• IRCTC top online ticketing source
• Online buyers shop at ebay
• For financial content, the buck stops at Moneycontrol

These and other top websites in the Indian digital space have emerged out of the second JuxtConsult India Online 2006 research. The most preferred websites across 14 categories were unearthed in the research and several have retained their lead vis a vis last year's findings. These include the biggest players including Yahoo, Indiatimes, Rediff, Naukri and Google.

The survey mapped over 20,000 responses from internet users and an additional 5500 responses were collected from a land survey to make the findings representative of all internet users including the regular ones.

Yahoo! is the most top of mind brand among the Indian urban Internet users! 35% of the Internet users recall it as the first website that comes to their mind. Google (21%), Rediff (15%), Indiatimes (5%) and Hotmail (5%) comprise the top five online brands in India. Interestingly, Hotmail has higher mind recall among users than MSN and this is unique to India.

•  Yahoo makes it interactive
Yahoo also emerges as the most preferred website visited by Internet users for 4 of the 14 popular activities, namely emailing, online gaming, dating/friendship and cinema content. While 37% users prefer Yahoo for email, 24% opt for Rediff and Gmail commands 12% of the user preference share. Gmail has notched significant growth in usage through eating into the share of Hotmail and Indiatimes.

•  For shaadi it is Bharatmatrimony
Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony.com are the two biggest websites in the online matrimonial space with 33% user preference each and command almost equal share of this classifieds vertical. 16% of those who search for their significant others on the web, head to Jeevansaathi.com. Interestingly, Jeevansaathi has entered the top three rung in comparison to virtually no mention in the top five slots of last year.

•  If you need a job, go get a naukri
Naukri is far ahead of the competition when it comes to online job search. 49% of the online audience prefers Naukri as their primary job source. Second ranked is Monster.com with 19% users picking it as their preferred job site and Timesjob.com holds the third rank with 7% usage.

•  It's a ticket to ride at IRCTC
Online ticket booking was introduced as a new category in this year's research. Irctc.co.in leads the category with 38% user preference as train tickets are the single largest selling item on the net. As far as air travel is concerned, Makemytrip.com leads with 9% user share in an otherwise highly competitive segment.

•  In tune with the world
The top three websites that Internet users prefer for content on news & events are Indiatimes, NDTV and Rediff. Indiatimes enjoys the position of the most preferred news source on the web. Be it general or event related news, it is the top player in this category with 16% user share which has come down dramatically from its last year's share of 30%. NDTV.com has 13% market share while Rediff controls 12% of this category.

Ebay and Google are leaders in the online shopping and information search categories. Both have retained their lead this year with 38% and 77% preference among the surveyed audience. Yahoo provides answers to 6% of users while 4% users get informed through Rediff.

Two new and upcoming categories where sustained growth is expected are mobile content and financial content. While Moneycontrol leads the former segment with 12% user preference, Yahoo and Google are second and third with 11% and 10% share. Rediff is the website of choice for users who download mobile content from the net with 23% user preference and its Yahoo (22%) and Indiatimes (14%) as the other two preferred websites for mobile downloads.