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Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Dougherty - North America

Analyst Weblog

Category Archives: Search Engines

Impact of paywall on NYTimes.com

April 11, 2011

After months of speculation, the paywall for The New York Times went live at 2pm on Monday, March 28th, which limits online readers (non-print subscribers) to 20 articles each month. For smartphone and tablet applications, only the top news section... Continue reading...

Holiday retail gets more social

January 05, 2011

With Facebook ranked as the #1 website in the US, retailers have been increasingly turning to social media to communicate with current and potential customers, particularly during the critical holiday shopping season. As a traffic driver, the Social Networking and... Continue reading...

iPod Touch and iPad Top Electronics Searches

December 22, 2010

Consumer electronics and gadgets are always popular holiday gifts and this season the iPod Touch, iPad and Amazon's Kindle were among the top search terms for CE products over the past 4 weeks. The analysis is based upon a portfolio... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 03:35 PM | (0)
In Categories Consumer Electronics | Holiday | Search Engines | Search Strategies

Search Behavior and Results for Laptops

August 18, 2010

Laptops have become an increasingly popular and necessary Back to School item, so we used the generic term ‘laptops’ to help understand the current search strategies and behavior around this competitive term. Many consumers put significant time and consideration into... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 07:18 PM | (3) | (0)
In Categories Back to School | Search Engines | Search Strategies

Thanksgiving and Black Friday Seasonal Traffic Patterns

November 24, 2009

When you start hearing about doorbuster sales and stores opening at 5 am, it can mean only one thing – Thanksgiving and Black Friday are almost upon us again! Retailers started to promote pre-Black Friday sales as early as late... Continue reading...

Initial Bing Stats for US and Canada

June 10, 2009

Last week, Microsoft launched the new version of its search engine, Bing and initial interest has been high due to a major advertising campaign to drive awareness, extensive media coverage, and of course, curiosity. In the US, Bing ranked 17th... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 04:34 PM | (2)
In Categories Bing | Search Engines | Search Strategies

Last Minute Mother’s Day Planning

April 30, 2009

The countdown is on for retailers looking to capture Mother’s Day spending with 10 shopping days left (11 if you are the same-day delivery type, if so – buy online, pick-up in-store is for you). According to the National Retail... Continue reading...

Online news aggregators – friend or foe?

April 08, 2009

This week kicked off with the Associated Press voicing concerns about how websites obtain permission to distribute content and share revenues. A debate has sparked about the ‘fair use’ doctrine (publishing a headline and/or sentence from story) and tracking the... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 03:41 PM | (3) | (0)
In Categories News and Media | Search Engines

Holiday Search Referral Growth

January 16, 2009

Search engines accounted for the largest share of upstream traffic to the Retail 500 ahead of cross-shopping on other retail websites and email during the holiday months of November and December. An integral part of every retailer’s marketing strategy; the... Continue reading...

Retailers still keen on search

December 23, 2008

Search remains king for retailers during this holiday season, with referrals from search engines responsible for driving the largest share of visits to the Retail 500. Last week, 30% of the upstream traffic to the Retail 500 was from search... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:44 PM | (0)
In Categories Google | Holiday | Retail | Search Engines

MSN Cashback successfully attracting visitors

October 03, 2008

This week MSN announced the launch of SearchPerks!, a new promotion that rewards visitors that use Live Search with tickets redeemable for various prizes. The latest endeavor is separate from the Live Search Cashback rebate program launched a few months... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 12:21 PM | (6) | (1)
In Categories Search Engines | Shopping and Classifieds

Online shopping traffic remains strong

August 18, 2008

One sector that we continually monitor here at Hitwise for insight into consumer behavior is traffic to the Shopping & Classifieds category. Given the current economic climate, price sensitivity is driving more visits to the websites of online retailers, coupons,... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 09:28 AM | (0)
In Categories Search Engines | Shopping and Classifieds

Google’s share of US searches hits 70%

August 11, 2008

Each month at Hitwise we release the share of searches by each of the major search engines to measure the impact upon the search landscape. The report tends to tell a similar story each month in terms of the ranking... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 03:11 PM | (12) | (2)
In Categories Search Engines

Heather Dougherty

Director, Research at Hitwise.