Online trends: Tablets and taxes

According to comScore traffic to online tax sites is up 15% Year over Year, with one in seven US consumers visiting an online tax site. It isn't just single adults or families visiting those sites; comScore reports tax prep providers have ramped up their visitation as well.

"While a large segment of Americans have become comfortable with filing their taxes online, the strong gains in the category this year seem to be propelled by increased marketing activity on the part of the key tax prep providers," said Brian Jurutka, comScore Senior Vice President. "During the first several weeks of 2012, we saw the top three DIY online tax prep providers dominate the category, representing more than 90 percent of all online filings, with Intuit alone accounting for a majority of the market. It will be interesting to see whether the overall growth in the category is sustained and how market shares among tax prep providers may shift as we approach tax filing day on April 17th."

The fastest growth demographic to visit these sites is the 35-44 year old age group (24% growth YoY) but both the 25-34 and 45-54 demographics increased traffic by 15%.

Meanwhile, as Americans anticipate tax refunds many may be thinking of mobile upgrades, specifically tablets.

According to the latest MobileSTAT report from Jumptap tablet traffic on their network has increased by 50% since December 2011. The Kindle Fire represents 33% of traffic. From smartphones, meanwhile, the top devices remain Android and iOS devices, making up 91% of the mobile marketplace within the Jumptap network.

"With Google activating 850,000 mobile devices daily, it's no surprise that Android has continued to outpace every other OS on the market," said Paran Johar, Chief Marketing Officer, Jumptap. "What advertisers should take away from this data is the importance of advertising cross-platform. Both the Android and iOS operating systems continue to grow while the remaining competitors represent only a fraction of the market."

Tags: comScore, Jumptap, mobile marketing, mobile trends, online trends, tax websites