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Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - UK
Analyst Weblog
Baby Names and More Fun to Come
August 27, 2007
The question of baby names and baby kit has become surprisingly relevant to me in recent months. In this, my last post before my maternity leave, I wanted to share some data and insights on baby related searches. After "bmi baby" the top UK search term to include the word "baby" in the past four weeks was "baby names". The following table lists the most popular searches that include the word "baby names".
As you can see, UK Internet searches for "unusual baby names" are not so unusual - and in fact have been increasing in the past year, up 28%. My friends all seem to be having girls, and the data indicates I am not alone. There was a 258% year on year increase in share of UK Internet searches for "baby girls names" but only an 84% increase for "baby boy names".
The most searched for baby kit is clothes, walkers, monitors, car seats and prams. My decision to get a Bugaboo seems to be vindicated by the search data, as searches for "bugaboo" outpaced all other pram manufacturers last week, save Graco. But, further checking revealed that Graco's brand is much more closely associated with car seats than prams (as indicated by our Search Term Suggestion Report).
Our baby is due Saturday so this will be my last post for the next few months. If you are hungry for UK data, be sure to read Robin Goad's blog and our Hitwise To Go posts.
Be well and see you in a few months.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 01:35 PM
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In Categories Search Engines
MySpace and Bebo Replace Searches for Chat Rooms
August 22, 2007
I mentioned last week that we are working on some analysis for a report on how consumer search behaviour has changed over the past couple of years. Given the interest in the YouTube-Funny Videos post, I thought I'd share another example.
We found a strong negative correlation between the weekly share of UK Internet searches for "myspace" and "bebo" with "chat rooms" and "free chat rooms" over the past two years. The charts below illustrate this nicely.
One of our readers pointed out that correlation does not equal causation. True and thanks for pointing that out. It does seem howver that as consumers have figured out where to find hang out and chat online, they changed the language of their search queries to navigate to specific social networks. Stay tuned for more results from the analysis.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 12:27 PM
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In Categories Social Networking
Xbox 360 Price Cut - Updated on Console Wars
August 21, 2007
According to Stephen McGill, head of gambling and entertainment for Xbox UK, the "Xbox 360 is uniquely placed to take the UK by storm this Christmas". After yesterday's announcement of a price cut for the gaming console, we thought it high time to update our statistics on searches for gaming consoles.
Last week, the Nintendo Wii was the most searched for gaming console in the UK, with share of UK Internet searches for "nintendo wii" 49% higher than "xbox 360". However, the Wii's position is not unchallenged. Two weeks ago, the Nintendo DS held the top spot and in mid-June the Xbox 360 was in first place. This makes the UK market, at least measured by Internet searches, much flatter than the US market, where the Wii has dominated since its launch.
So what impact will yesterday's price cut have on the Xbox? Internet searches are often a leading indicator of interest and so we will watch this closely. We update our search data weekly, so we'll post updated search statistics next week. In the meantime, I can tell you that enthusiasm seems a bit muted. The top website to receive UK Internet visits from searches for "xbox 360" is www.xbox.com. Based on daily data, the website didn't get a lift yesterday on the news. We will post an update next week to see whether as the news filters out enthusiasm grows.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 10:46 AM
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In Categories Search | Shopping and Classifieds
YouTube Replace Searches for Funny Videos
August 17, 2007
We are working on some analysis for a report on how consumer search behaviour has changed over the past couple of years and I wanted to share a fun bit of data that we found. Analysis of search term content, or the words that consumers use when they do internet searches, has seen some pretty interesting changes over the past two years. An obvious shift has been the rise of social media brands.
For example, we found a strong negative correlation between the weekly share of UK Internet searches for "youtube" and "funny videos" over the past two years. UK Internet searches for funny videos started to pick up just before YouTube devleoped much brand recognition in February and March 2006. Once YouTube started to take off, we saw a precipitous decline in UK internet searches for "funny videos" as illustrated in the chart below.
As consumers figured out where to find funny videos online, they changed the language of their search queries to navigate to the YouTube website. Stay tuned for more results from the analysis.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 11:16 AM
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In Categories Video Sharing
