IRS.GOV GOES "DOT COM" FOR TAX SEASON.

In an effort to mainstream e-filing as a popular alternative to paper and postal tax filing, the IRS turned to web advertising and a more user-friendly web site this tax season - corresponding to site traffic almost tripling.

A new report released by AdRelevance, a division of Media Metrix (Nasdaq: MMXI) and an innovator in Internet advertising measurement technology, examines new online advertising initiatives of the IRS and other tax-related websites and provides an in-depth look at the growing popularity of e-filing.

Although overall unique visitor traffic to tax-related websites is growing at a rate of 20 percent, IRS.gov has been phenomenal increase in unique visitors, with an estimated growth of 182 percent this year compared to last. On the other hand, the Dept. of Treasury site, IRS.gov parent site, has seen a 46 percent decrease in unique visitor traffic for the same time period.

In addition to providing taxpayers with a more intuitive web address, some of this increase in traffic was driven by a strategic IRS online advertising program to generate awareness of the relatively simple e-filing process. The IRS campaign peaked in weekly impressions at roughly the same time - early to mid-February - as traffic to the IRS.gov website did. IRS.gov advertising impressions appeared primarily on Yahoo sites (58 percent), followed by Talk City (30 percent) and Bloomberg (12 percent).