SEARCH ENGINE Yahoo.ie has emerged as the most popular of 19 Irish websites, according to a survey by the Joint National Internet Research (JNIR).

The website came out top with 28 per cent of people questioned about their internet usage between July and December 2007 saying they had visited it in the last year.

The next most popular site was eircom.net with 22 per cent and ticketmaster.ie was third with 20 per cent. Property website myhome.ie, which is owned by The Irish Times Ltd, had 11 per cent.

Among media websites, RTÉ came out on top with 12 per cent visiting its site compared to 6 per cent for The Irish Timeswebsite, ireland.com. The website for the Irish Independentwas third with 5 per cent.

The JNIR research uses a similar audience measurement research approach to the JNLR and JNRS used for newspapers and radio was conducted by Behaviour & Attitudes and Amas.

The research is the first of its kind and aims to profile the people visiting different websites.

However, the fact that it was limited to just the 19 Irish websites that paid to be included - and ignores airlines and social networking sites - limits its findings.

Another factor is that 51 per cent of the 5,185 people surveyed do not use the internet.

TOP 10: Sites for weekly use

Yahoo560,000

Eircom393,000

RTÉ167,000

Ticketmaster147,000

Irishjobs.ie115,000

Golden Pages104,000

Entertainment.ie90,000

Ireland.com87,000

Myhome.ie87,000

Loadzajobs.ie72,000

TOP 10: Sites for ABC1 users

Yahoo335,000

Eircom250,000

RTÉ116,000

Ticketmaster106,000

Golden Pages72,000

Ireland.com68,000

Myhome.ie63,000

Irishjobs.ie62,000

Entertainment.ie56,000

Independent.ie51,000

Source - JNIR July- December 2007