Hitwise Intelligence - Bill Tancer - US

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If MySpace is the number one upstream to Google I imagine they are number one for a lot of other sites as well. Where else do MySpace users go?

Couldn't this be from AdSense clicks and not actually searches? Given the recent press about the 'quality' of MySpace traffic, that's probably the more likely scenario, no?
http://www.jensense.com/archives/2006/05/myspacecom_and.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/business/yourmoney/23myspace.html?ei=5090&en=68344369c2b006ac&ex=1303444800&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Bill -

Long time no talk - hope all is well.

Wow, big numbers. When you say that MySpace was the "#1 upstream provider of traffic to Google, supplying an astonishing 8.2% of all traffic", I assume this means that Google is then next visited site after a myspace visit, or does it mean that MySpace users are clicking on a link on Myspace or doing a search from search boxes on myspace. If the former, then it stands to reason that MySpace is close to "#1" traffic provider since MySpace has astounding amounts of traffic.

Given that MySpace already has a search box that defaults to web search (powered by Yahoo) and as you show many folks go to Google rather than use the MySpace search box, the opportunity for MySpace may be minimal since the best they could probably do is convince Google to power the MySpace search box and keep more members searching the web from MySpace. In the end, I seriously doubt that MySpace could provide a better search experience than the biggies.

Two more questions for you:

* What % of Yahoo!'s traffic originates at MySpace?
* What % of Google's traffic originates at Yahoo!? (I expect they are number 3 behind MSN!)

Joe, to your question, the top 5 downstream sites for myspace are: 1) blogs.myspace.com 2)www.google.com 3)music.myspace.com 4)www.yahoo.com and 5)www.photobucket.com

Look for some future posts on myspace user behaviors.

-Bill

Jared, to your point, Hitwise reports clickstream based on domains visited. In the example of Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) listings within mypace, we would report on the visit to myspace and if, an Overture listings were clicked, then on the visit to that resulting URL. Hope that helps.

-Bill

Kevin,

Great to hear from you. I agree that just incorporating search may not launch Myspace past Google, Yahoo! and MSN, what I think poses a competitive threat to the big three is that Myspace has become the new "home base" for internet users, more so than the portal offering that search engines are building out. The comment about myspace incorporating their own search was aimed at what Google may possibly loose in upstream visits if a myspace search became the new hip way to search the internet (currently myspace search shows little more than a group of sponsored listings).

To your other questions, Yahoo! Search receives 1.4% of its traffic from Myspace, Google receives 4% from MSN and 3.5% from Yahoo!

-Bill

MY Space should in fact develop not only its own Search Engine, but its own Directory and Sponsor Links.

The Search Field should be as competative and Varied as reasonably practical.

As an alternative to starting a Search Engine, MYSpace could consider becoming a META Search Engine - compiling Google Yahoo MSN & ASK SERPS with varying degrees of emphasis.

eg: Google SERPs 50% - Yahoo 25% - MSN 20% - ASK 5%

This would make an significant impact on Search

Hello. A prior comment poster had asked the question:

"When you say that MySpace was the "#1 upstream provider of traffic to Google, supplying an astonishing 8.2% of all traffic", I assume this means that Google is then next visited site after a myspace visit, or does it mean that MySpace users are clicking on a link on Myspace or doing a search from search boxes on myspace?"

Unless I missed it, I don't see the answer to which alternative is correct. Could you give or point to the answer? Thank you. Very interesting blog by the way.

For the myspace demographics (16-26) google means search and i dont think myspace owning a search engine would change that behaviour.

So the best way for myspace to monetize this is just to put a google branded search box (plain old adsense for search box) in its site instead of the current yahoo powered box.

This would instantly add a additional revenue of 128 million or so (80% profit share of 8% of google's US revenue of 2 billion)

anon, Hitwise measures clickstream data by the succession of URLs that users visit, so your first assumption is correct... 8.2% of visitors to myspace.com were on the Google domain prior to visiting myspace (not necessarily navigating by links). Hope that helps. - Bill

Gopi says ....

"So the best way for myspace to monetize this is just to put a google branded search box (plain old adsense for search box) in its site instead of the current yahoo powered box". And his $128M in Revs may seem areasonable quarterly return.

My reasoning is a little more complex although I may be guilty of this myself, by confusing a situation. Anyhow, an answer is explained in my comment, here:

http://mediastockblog.com/article/9409

Nice discussion & thanks.

:)
Ross

Do you know what % of eBay's traffic comes from Google?

for the week ending yesterday, 8.72% of Ebay's traffic originated from Google.

Given the demographics of the MySpace user, their likelihood to convert for many of the advertisers who might want to advertise may be low. For others it may be high.
So, rolling out a MySpace search product is a sticky challenge. We have seen the conversion rates of component parts of each engine?s ppc traffic to vary significantly, even month to month.
http://conversionindex.did-it.com/

What about the opposite #'s?

What % of Google's traffic goes to MySpace?

Do you know the most searched for keywords in the past 90 days?

4. myspace
7. myspace.com
32. myspace layouts
65. my space
78. www.myspace.com

So, per the figures shown up, I guess some propper filling up to the grid's slots below would highlight the best investing opportunity for each of the five companies ( based on the traffic generation factor )

Generator
of %
Traffic

Yahoo MSN Google MySpace Ebay
Yahoo 3.5%
MSN 4%
Google 8.2% 8.72%
MySpace 1.4%
Ebay

bil

What about the opposite #'s?

What % of Google's traffic goes to MySpace?

Do you know the most searched for keywords in the past 90 days?

4. myspace
7. myspace.com
32. myspace layouts
65. my space
78. www.myspace.com

Bill,

For your comment: 8.2% of visitors to myspace.com were on the Google domain prior to visiting myspace (not necessarily navigating by links).

Should it be the following? 8.2% of visitors to myspace.com will go to Google domain after visiting myspace