May’s data is here and it’s hot! It was a big month and the data shows some tell-tale signs that Twitter’s days of monster growth are waning, Microsoft’s $100 million marketing budget for Bing may be paying off, and the sour economy is not negatively impacting summer vacation plans.

Twitter Site Visitors Put on the Brakes

It had to happen eventually, and May was the month that traffic to Twitter.com started to show signs of fatigue (up 1% to 19.7 Million Unique Visitors). While this is not the whole story behind the emerging Social site because users often interact with Twitter without visiting the actual site, it is a sign that new user growth in the U.S. may be flattening. Stay tuned for more on this one going forward.

Big May for Microsoft

The Softies had a busy month up in Redmond, spending big budgets to launch Bing as well as a new version of their Zune player. Early indicators point to some solid buzz around both products, with traffic to zune.net increasing 13% to 708,000 UVs, and Bing driving 635,000 people through the door.

Home and Garden

April showers have clearly given way to May flowers, at least in some parts of the country – sites spanning the Home and Garden category got a nice bump in May, as consumers took to their yards, tended to gardens, and fully embraced the warmer weather. Notable movers included Home Depot’s homeimproverclub.com (up 132% to 500,000 UVs), managemyhome.com (up 52% to 458,000 UVs), backyardgardener.com (up 26% to 531,000 UVs), and hgtv.com (up 24% to 5.5 Million UVs).

Domestic Travel Heats Up

Budgets may be tighter this year, but all signs point to consumers still making vacation plans for the summer. Visitor traffic increased to the National Parks and Services site, nps.gov (up 14% to 3.2 Million UVs), and local theme park sites, like hersheypark.com (up 47% to 416,000 UVs). As a result, major hotel sites like holidayinn.com (up 18% to 979,000 UVs), bestwestern.com (up 11% to 1.9 Million UVs), and daysinn.com (up 14% to 1 Million UVs) all saw a lift alongside rental car sites, which were also positively impacted – budget.com (up 25% to 1.7 Million UVs), hertz.com (up 1.7 Million UVs), and avis.com (up 10% to 1.4 Million UVs).

See you at the Show: Movie Ticket Sites

Some blockbuster films hit the box office in May, including Star Trek, Terminator, and Up. As a result, traffic to movie ticket sites like fandango.com (up 29% to 8 Million UVs), moviefone.com (up 23% to 5.2 Million UVs), and movietickets.com (up 28% to 3.7 Million UVs) increased considerably.

Check out the May monthly data on Site Analytics, Referral Analytics and Ranked Lists.

Highlights from May include Twitter’s recently surging traffic flattening out.

And as a reminder, Search Analytics data is updated daily!

Michael Rucker of YouTube recently joined us at the TNS Media Digital CMO Summit and shared some of his views on online video in the Digital 180 interview series. Michael discuss how the differences between broadcast and online video change how marketers should approach each and other trends he sees in online video. Check back next week for more insights from the Digital 180 series.

Enfatico CEO Torrence Boone recently took some time out to share his insights in the latest Digital 180 interview. Torrence talks about the importance of delivering creativity and ideas cost-effectively as well as the relationship between creative and analytic/scientific thinking in marketing. Check back with the Compete Blog for more insights from the TNS Media Digital Summit and the Digital 180.

In the latest installment of Compete’s Digital 180 series Morgans Hotel Group’s CMO, Scott Williams, shares his views about how to remain daring and innovative as a brand during this downturn of the economy. Stay tuned to the Compete Blog for more insights from the TNS Media Digital Summit and the Digital 180.

This week, Compete is introducing Digital 180, an “online TV” series that hunts for new insights by going behind the scenes with some of the industry’s most innovative and influential marketers. It’s no mistake that we’re kicking off Digital 180 at the Digital CMO Summit in Newport, RI. Formerly Compete Customer Day, this event has grown from its humble roots as a gathering of select clients into a who’s who of marketing genius. This year, Digital CMO Summit 2009 featured 150 marketers representing the world’s biggest agencies, leading marketing technologist and, of course, iconic global brands.

For two days, we witnessed the future of our industry. Guided by the event’s theme, “Measuring Up,” the speakers talked about how internet and digital media are transforming their businesses, what they are doing to win online and how they are creating stronger connections between data-driven digital insights and meaningful ROI. Through presentations and panels, we not only learned how other brands “measure up,” but also we took home some never-before-revealed secrets for success.

Moving forward, we’ll continue to deliver interesting, insightful and useful programming through the Digital 180 channel. Through brief interviews, such as the one you’ll see below, and other video content, we’ll show you what leading digerati are thinking and, from time to time, provide our unique spin on news, events and our work. We hope you enjoy Digital 180, and we look forward to hearing your feedback and suggestions.