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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

Analyst Weblog

Category Archives: Politics

Has the threat of postal strikes harmed eCommerce in the UK?

October 21, 2009

The threat of further postal strikes is one of the hottest political issues of the moment, and this is being reflected in our search data. As the chart below illustrates, searches for a portfolio postal strike related terms were up... Continue reading...

Iran searches and Twitter

June 23, 2009

Given the current political situation in the country, we were expecting to see a spike in searches for ‘iran’ last week. As the chart below illustrates, there were more searches for Iran during the week ending 20/06/09 than for Iraq,... Continue reading...

MPs’ expenses update: Telegraph picks up 1 in every 756 UK page views

May 19, 2009

Now that the MPs’ expenses scandal has led to the resignation of Michael Martin, the House of Commons’ Speaker, it seems like a good to provide an update on the Internet data. As the chart below illustrates, searches for our... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 04:00 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Government | News and Media | Politics

MPs' expenses searches drive Telegraph page views

May 14, 2009

The Telegraph’s MPs' expenses story has dominated the headlines for almost a week now. As the chart below illustrates, searches for a portfolio of terms relating to story increased by 575% last week, and our data will likely show a... Continue reading...

Budget 2009: paid search tactics

April 27, 2009

As you would expect, last week’s budget received a lot of press attention. UK Internet searches for the term ‘budget’ increased 27-fold between the weeks ending April 18th and 25th. However, as the chart below illustrates, searches for the term... Continue reading...

Daniel Hannan: has social media finally gone political in the UK?

March 31, 2009

It is generally accepted that his campaign team’s use of social media contributed to Barack Obama’s victory in last year’s American presidential election. But over on this side of the pond, politicians have been much slower to grasp the nettle... Continue reading...

Celeb and entertainment searches dominate Google News

March 26, 2009

Last week we revealed that Twitter had overtaken Google News in the UK. However, although everyone’s favourite micro-blogging service receives more UK Internet visits, Google News remains the greater source of traffic for News and Media websites. As the chart... Continue reading...

Guest post – ‘Click’ review by David Soskin

March 02, 2009

Following the example of my US colleagues, today I’m posting our first ever guest posting on the UK blog. I’d like to introduce David Soskin, Vice Chairman of Cheapflights, loyal Hitwise client for a number of years, and well respected... Continue reading...

“Money Saving Expert” Martin Lewis the most searched-for personality in the UK

February 18, 2009

Martin Lewis, creator of the “consumer revenge” website Money Saving Expert was the most searched-for personality by UK Internet users during the 12 weeks ending January 3 2009. There were 11% more searches for Martin Lewis than US President Barack... Continue reading...

Twitter traffic increases 10-fold in a year

January 21, 2009

Following Heather’s post yesterday on Twitter overtaking Digg in the US, here is some UK data on the most talked about website of the moment: UK Internet traffic to the site has increased 10-fold over past last 12 months. For... Continue reading...

Pre-budget report: tax cuts and petrol prices

November 26, 2008

Given the economic conditions and the various rumours last week, the government’s pre-budget report has received a lot of attention online .Looking at the search data up to last week, you can see from the chart below that searches for... Continue reading...

TV and US media websites big election winners in the UK

November 06, 2008

The US presidential election was a global media event, and Barack Obama’s historic victory caused a spike in traffic to news websites in the UK. Here is a list of the 10 most visited in the News and Media websites... Continue reading...

UK Internet searches for the US Election

November 04, 2008

After months of campaigning, Americans are today finally voting for the 44th president of their country. The US research team have been doing a great job monitoring search behaviour across the pond, so I thought I’d have a look at... Continue reading...

Knife crime searches: statistics, prevention and geography

July 24, 2008

At Hitwise we believe that our search data provides an unprecedented insight into what people are thinking. This information has a huge number of uses, from spotting the latest hot band to measuring the popularity of any number of products,... Continue reading...

Blog traffic reaches all time high

June 10, 2008

UK Internet visits to weblogs reached an all time high last week. As the chart below illustrates, Blogs and Personal Websites accounted for 1.19% of all UK traffic, equivalent to one in every 84 internet visits. Taking the slightly longer... Continue reading...

Petrol prices searches reach an all time high

May 28, 2008

UK Internet searches for ‘petrol prices’ reached an all time high last week in advance of yesterday’s fuel protests in London and Wales. As the chart below illustrates, searches for the term have been increasing since Christmas, and have shot... Continue reading...

London Mayoral elections update

April 30, 2008

Last week we analyzed UK Internet traffic relating to the London Mayoral elections. With only one day of campaigning left, I wanted to provide the latest data. The chart below illustrates the daily Internet traffic to the three main candidates’... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 11:00 AM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Government | Politics | Social networks

London Mayoral elections: what does the Internet data say?

April 22, 2008

A lot has been made about how the candidates and voters for the London Mayoral elections on May 1st have embraced the Internet like never before - at least in British political terms, as this is one area where the... Continue reading...

Brits more interested in US presidential race than domestic politics

February 29, 2008

UK Internet users are more interested in the United States presidential race than politics at home. Senator Barack Obama is the most searched for political figure in the UK, receiving three times as many searches on his name last week... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 03:00 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories News and Media | Politics | Search

UK Internet traffic to newspaper websites reaches a new high

January 29, 2008

UK Internet traffic to newspaper websites reached its highest level in over two years last week off the back of a number of big news stories. For the week ending 26 January 2008, 1.48% of all UK Internet visits went... Continue reading...

Act on C02 campaign an environmental success

January 11, 2008

A lot of new years’ resolutions will have included a promise to reduce carbon footprints. Therefore it was a shrewd move by the Department of Transport to choose this time of year to launch Act on CO2. As the chart... Continue reading...

Campbell's age did have an impact on the Lib Dems

October 16, 2007

Unfortunately it seems that the polls, the party, and the public are indeed merciless, and last night Sir Menzies Campbell stood down as leader of the Liberal Democrats. Yesterday there was a seven-fold increase in traffic to the Lib Dem’s... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 02:00 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Demographics | Politics

Robin Goad

Research Director, Hitwise UK.