Yahoo overtakes ESPN...four weeks and running

According to the Nielsens, Yahoo Sports has been the most trafficked sports website on the internet for four straight weeks. Not sure I remember any site beating ESPN in traffic for four straight weeks....ever. Maybe six or seven years ago when Sportsline had a little spurt?

 

Yahoo does have a much cleaner setup with its sports site than ESPN, and its fantasy section is way better. I would think the fantasy visits have to be counted in this, because I know I go to yahoo to start a league way before I go to ESPN. Good for them.

 

Oh yeah, I'm guessing fantasy has to be a huge part. The last few years Yahoo has crawled up the traffic charts, but I think they really closed the gap last year. I seem to remember they even beat ESPN in traffic a week or two. But I'm a little surprised to see it happen four weeks in a row, even with the fantasy.

 

I go to Yahoo because it's clean, quick and easy to navigate.

 

I wonder what percentage of ESPN's traffic is Sports Guy-related. If Yahoo could discover the next must-read internet columnist, they could kick ESPN's ass.

 

I can't recall the last time I hit ESPN.

 

Don't tell DyePack, but in this contest, design does matter. There are many wonderful reporters and writers, some of whom are friends of mine, on ESPN. And clicking on espn.com evokes the same feelings I have when I must make a trip to the Registry. For you non-Mass. residents, that's our DMV.

 

I'd hit it.

 

ESPN.com used to be a must-read every day for me. Now, I don't even click on it once a week.

Other than newspapers, I read Passan's column on Yahoo more consistently than any other 'Net writer.

And frankly -- I find out about breaking news, sports and otherwise, on SJ quicker than I ever did on ESPN. I suspect I'm not the only one here who does that ...

Baseball-reference.com and/or Retrosheet is always my bookmark for any MLB research, but I use Yahoo to check quick facts on most other sports. The reason? ESPN takes too long to load, with so many ads, commercials, graphics and the like. Plus, I can't stand CBSsportsline or SI.com. And who the hell goes to Foxsports.com? Not I, anyway ...

Mike Gee's right: The design does count. But more than that, it's the user-friendly access. Because like many people, I have Internet ADD. If your page has too much crap or takes too long to load (especially on broadband), I've already tried some other site to find what I'm looking for. Yahoo is accurate, quick, and easy: case closed.

 

i agree that fantasy is a huge part of what drives yahoo but i think you guys are right about the design of espn being its downfall. i know for a fact that there is quality on that site because people link to good espn stuff all the time on SportsJournalists.com. but i have the most up-to-date computers, DSL, etc., and espn.com just slows everything down and is too unwieldy. they try to cram too much crap in there.

 

I definitely am rooting for Yahoo to win this battle, but I think these numbers may be very misleading...

 

Yahoo's beauty is its simplicity, but one bitch about its fantasy football coverage. When I go there on Sundays for a simple, easy-to-load site that features the day's passing/rushing/receiving leaders all it gives me is "points" these players were good for, not the actual stats.