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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

Analyst Weblog

Category Archives: Search

12 Insights of Christmas

December 01, 2011

It’s December and as people crack open the first windows on their Advent calendars we thought we would make some predictions for Christmas 2011. In true festive fashion we’ve plumped for the 12 Insights of Christmas, and not a gold... Continue reading...

Father’s Day 2011 emphasises the personal touch

June 17, 2011

This weekend is Father’s Day and in the run up to the celebratory day on Sunday, search term behaviour has revolved around, dates, gift ideas and cards. What becomes immediately apparent when looking at the search data for the last... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 01:18 PM | (0)
In Categories Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds

How search is the ideal benchmark for consumer behaviour

June 15, 2011

On Monday the Bank of England (BoE) released its latest Quarterly Bulletin which included an article Using search data as economic indicators. The central bank is using search data to benchmark key areas like housing, unemployment, tax and benefits. Here... Continue reading...

YouTube hits 20% of all UK social networking visits

May 08, 2011

Last month I mentioned that we regularly get requests for data on the top search engines and social networks in the UK. Last time the focus of my blog was Microsoft’s search engine Bing, but this month the spotlight is... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 05:52 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Google | Search | Video

Bing fastest moving search engine in the UK

April 12, 2011

People are always asking us: What are the most popular search engines and social networks in the UK? Search and social are the two biggest sources of traffic delivering visits to websites in the UK, so it’s understandable that these... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 02:59 PM | (5) | (0)
In Categories Google | Search | Social networks

The changing facets of social shopping online

April 07, 2011

We had quite a few comments on my post last month about Groupon UK and the rise of social shopping. Given the interest surrounding this topic, I thought I’d follow up with a post which concentrates on the key differences... Continue reading...

Wikipedia second biggest breast cancer authority in the UK

April 05, 2011

According to an article in the BBC, Cancer Research UK is asking its specialists to write new content for Wikipedia in order to increase the accuracy and clarity of the entries supplied on the online encyclopaedia. Wikipedia is the 12th... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 08:28 AM | (0)
In Categories Health | Search

Charity traffic leaps 30% in Comic Relief week

March 18, 2011

It’s red nose time and once again the UK turns its thoughts to sponsored runs, baking extravaganzas and taking baths in baked beans – all in the name of raising money for charity. As you might expect, searches for all... Continue reading...

Social media more popular than Entertainment online

March 16, 2011

Social networks continue to grow in dominance and for the first time ever, social media has become the single biggest activity online in the UK, overtaking the Entertainment category. During January 2011 social networks accounted for 12.4% of all UK... Continue reading...

Will social shopping spell the end of discount voucher sites?

March 15, 2011

Have online discount vouchers had their day? A couple of years ago a lot of industries relied on discount vouchers in order to get them through the recession. The “credit crunch lunch” kept consumers walking through the doors of high... Continue reading...

Which retailers are leveraging the marketing power of Facebook?

February 24, 2011

You don’t have to look far online to find praise for Facebook. The UK’s most popular social network has been heralded as an indispensible tool for online advertising and social engagement for some time now. But which brands are making... Continue reading...

Smoking search terms: Stopping is better than Quitting

January 27, 2011

As January draws to a close many of us will be facing the reality that we simply weren’t made to stick to resolutions. What started as a zealous passion to get fit, drink less or simply leave the office on... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 04:10 PM | (0)
In Categories Health | Search

Comedians have last laugh of ticketing search terms

January 24, 2011

Every week the research team here at Hitwise do some analysis of the ticketing industry to see which music artists are being searched for the most and which are the most popular gigs/festivals that people want to attend. Whilst this... Continue reading...

ASOS capitalise on Facebook traffic with social store

January 20, 2011

Online fashion retailer ASOS announced yesterday that it would be opening a Facebook store at the end of January, allowing users to buy items directly from the social network rather than having to click through to the ASOS homepage. ASOS... Continue reading...

Predictions for 2011 – Oscars and NFL

December 24, 2010

At this time of year we often reflect on the past 12 months and look ahead to the forthcoming year. I’ve already reviewed 2010 in a previous blog post and now it’s time to look ahead and see what people... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:58 AM | (0)
In Categories Fast moving search terms | Football | Search

2010 Online: the year in review

December 21, 2010

I can scarcely believe that a whole year has passed since I was sitting here writing the 2009 review, but 12 months to the day here we are, and it’s been another fascinating year in the digital world. Once again... Continue reading...

Hitwise reveals Middle Britain online

December 15, 2010

Earlier this week Experian revealed the real Middle Britain to bring sharp classification to what has previously been an overused and woolly term. Using Experian’s consumer segmentation tool Mosaic, some 13.1 million people were identified as Middle Britain in the... Continue reading...

Alcohol Vendor traffic up 50% as Party season gets started

November 26, 2010

As December approaches with alarming rapidity the start of the party season will be swinging into action quicker than you can say “Secret Santa”. With office Christmas parties and large family gatherings on the way online searches will inevitably turn... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 01:28 PM | (0)
In Categories Christmas | Food | Search

Apple iTunes Beatles success driven by Facebook not search

November 23, 2010

Last week The Beatles finally came to iTunes after years of fans demanding legal downloads of songs like Hey Jude, Come Together and Let It Be. As a result, traffic to the Apple website spiked dramatically, with visits from UK... Continue reading...

Call of Duty Black Ops fans rejoice at Zombie return

November 09, 2010

At midnight last night thousands of video games fans queued to get their hands on the latest must-have game – Call of Duty: Black Ops. Obviously there were plenty of people who couldn’t buy a copy last night and instead... Continue reading...

Clever Clocks Go Back campaign boosts View London traffic by 31%

November 05, 2010

This week the clocks went back which no doubt surprised more than a few people on Monday morning when they turned up for work an hour early. The surprising thing is that even a seemingly innocuous event like the clocks... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 06:10 PM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Fast moving search terms | Search

Cheryl Cole most searched for celebrity online

October 28, 2010

Celebrities – from the A-list Hollywood star to the Z-list Big Brother housemate, we’re obsessed with them, and no-one seems to attract more public attention currently than the nation’s favourite Geordie, Cheryl Cole. We monitor over 50 million search terms... Continue reading...

Searches for Halloween costumes scarily high this October

October 26, 2010

Halloween is becoming a bigger and bigger calendar event every year in the UK as the British and American cultures become more intertwined and universal. Two years ago, online searches for Halloween and all related terms, from ‘halloween costumes’ to... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 01:05 PM | (5) | (0)
In Categories Search

Thomas Cook capitalises on Ryder Cup travel traffic

October 14, 2010

Last Friday Thomas Cook made the announcement of a proposed tie up with The Co-operative Travel, bringing together two of the UK’s biggest multi-channel travel companies. According to the Financial Times, the merger will give Thomas Cook a 34% market... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 12:39 PM | (0)
In Categories Search | Sport | Travel

Experian and Hitwise at ad:tech: What will be the hot products this Christmas?

September 21, 2010

If you’re visiting ad:tech in London over the next couple of days, be sure to pop over to the Experian stand (270a) and say hello to us and our Experian colleagues. At 10:30 on Wednesday I’ll be taking the stage... Continue reading...

Fulham and Heineken big search terms ahead of Champions League clash

September 14, 2010

The preliminary rounds of the Champions League are over and the tournament proper starts in earnest tonight, with Manchester United taking on Rangers and new boys Tottenham travelling to Germany to face Werder Bremen. The chart below shows how searches... Continue reading...

New York No1 destination in first ever top 50 flights list

September 13, 2010

In our first ever list of the top 50 flight destinations, as searched for by UK Internet users, New York has come out as the most popular destination worldwide. Between May and July 2010 New York was the most popular... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 02:18 PM | (0)
In Categories Search | Travel

Google Instant to highlight the long tail not kill it

September 09, 2010

Google has made some big changes to its search capabilities with the introduction of Google Instant. Search results now appear instantly in real-time as you type making the new Google search incredibly fast. Whilst initially the introduction of autocomplete to... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:49 AM | (4) | (0)
In Categories Google | Paid search | Search

Surge in searches for fixed rate mortgages

August 27, 2010

The number of internet searches for fixed rate mortgages soared between April – June 2010 (Q2) compared to the same time period last year, with searches for the term ‘fixed rate mortgages 10 years’ up almost ten fold over the... Continue reading...

1 in every 100 UK Internet searches Sky Sports related

August 16, 2010

Although the lower leagues had already kicked off earlier in the month, the football season truly got underway this weekend with the first Barclays Premier League matches. As you would expect, UK Internet visits to key football related websites increased... Continue reading...

Skin Cancer searches and sunshine

August 02, 2010

We’re having a great summer in the UK, which makes a pleasant change from the last couple of years. However, there are downsides to the warm weather and sunshine, not least the risk of sunburn and, in the worst cases,... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 04:04 PM | (0)
In Categories Health | Search | Weather

Cameron's Big Society prompts big traffic spike

July 30, 2010

Last week the Prime Minister set out his vision for the “big society”, the flagship social policy of the Conservative-LibDem coalition government. The initiative aims to take the emphasis of responsibility away from the government and instead empower people to... Continue reading...

Harry Potter fever: Wizarding World theme park, Deathly Hallows, Lego game

July 09, 2010

With the unveiling in June of the Universal theme park, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the movie trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and the release of Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, it's fair to say that... Continue reading...

Budget 2010: the online response

June 23, 2010

As expected, yesterday’s budget, presented by the Chancellor, George Osborne, gained a huge amount of press coverage. Given the wide range of changes introduced, it is not a surprise to see that many people went online to research both the... Continue reading...

Budweiser tops the Experian Hitwise World Cup Brands Index during week 2

June 22, 2010

Budweiser, an official FIFA World Cup sponsor and sponsor of the USA team, was the brand that made the most of its World Cup involvement last week. UK Internet searches for Budweiser increased by 25% between the week ending June... Continue reading...

Rio Ferdinand the most searched for footballer in the UK; Cristiano Ronaldo the most popular around the world

June 11, 2010

Last week 1 in every 155 search terms typed into a search engine in the UK were World Cup related. However, this number refers only to terms containing variations on the phrase ‘world cup’; there are obviously lots of other... Continue reading...

Social networks now more popular than search engines in the UK

June 08, 2010

Social networks now receive more UK Internet visits than search engines. During May, social networks accounted for 11.88% of UK Internet visits and search engines accounted for 11.33%. May was the first ever month that social networks have been more... Continue reading...

Flag searches reflect the patriotic mood

June 03, 2010

You can’t have failed to notice the number of flags flying in the UK over the last few weeks. Many of those hanging from cars, pubs and windows across the land are England flags, but other nations are represented as... Continue reading...

World Cup 2010 searches and Panini football stickers

June 01, 2010

The World Cup is nearly upon us and, as you would imagine, the Internet is starting to go mad for it. Last week (w/e 29/05/10) UK Internet users searched for nearly 25,000 terms; a few were related to other events,... Continue reading...

Luxury and bespoke searches: travel, fashion and furniture

May 19, 2010

Yesterday I presented at the Luxury Interactive 2010 conference in London, and I thought I’d share a couple of the finding from the research that I carried out for the event. The first thing I did was to look at... Continue reading...

Volcanic ash cloud: online travel impact

April 19, 2010

Last week UK Internet users searched for over 10,000 different searches containing the word ‘volcano’, up from less than 1,000 the previous week. The reason for this surge was the volcanic eruption in Iceland that has caused travel chaos across... Continue reading...

Leadership debate winners: Lib Dems, Sky News, ITV and Twitter

April 19, 2010

Despite the best efforts of an Icelandic volcano to ground all Northern European flights and take (obscure?) the limelight, last week’s leaders’ debate grabbed a lot of media attention. The consensus view is that Nick Clegg came out on top,... Continue reading...

Online voter registration

April 13, 2010

British citizens flocked to the Internet to register to vote last week following the announcement that the General Election will take place on May 6th. UK Internet searches for the term ‘register to vote’ increased 9-fold between the week ending... Continue reading...

BBQ searches take off as the sunshine comes out

April 09, 2010

We might have only had a couple of days of sunshine following our cold winter, but us Brits have been anticipating the summer for number of weeks now. The chart below illustrates the volume of searches for the terms ‘bbq’,... Continue reading...

Why Facebook hasn’t overtaken Google in the UK (and won’t for the foreseeable future)

March 19, 2010

You may well have seen our data illustrating that Facebook picked up more US Internet visits than Google.com last week (and possibly even seen me talking about it on Channel 4 News). As a consequence of the interest in the... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 09:11 AM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Google | Search | Social networks

Mother’s Day: Woodlands Junior School strikes again

March 16, 2010

A couple of years ago we highlighted the extraordinary case of Woodlands Junior School, the best optimised school website in the UK. It appears high up on the Google SERP for popular seasonal terms such as ‘mothers day’, ‘pancake day’,... Continue reading...

Is Fairtrade growing in popularity?

March 12, 2010

Another guest blog by Jonny Steel, Insights Manager, mySupermarket-Insights.co.uk Fairtrade Fortnight is an annual event which aims to raise the profile of fair and ethical trading values. The supermarkets have been keen to get on board for the past few... Continue reading...

Coffee wars: Flat White vs. Cappuccino

March 11, 2010

Hitwise was started in Australia, and there remains a strong Antipodean influence in our London office. The most recent manifestation of this is a fashion amongst my colleagues for flat whites – a style of coffee that, like the pavlova... Continue reading...

The dotcom bubble: 10 years on

March 10, 2010

Today is the tenth anniversary of the bursting of the dotcom bubble, so I though it would be interesting to see how the Internet landscape has changed over the last decade. Below is a list of the top 20 websites... Continue reading...

Top websites in France

February 09, 2010

Bonjour! It’s a very exciting day at Experian Hitwise towers today because we have announced the launch of Hitwise France! The Hitwise France service will provide clients with data on website industry and category rankings, Clickstream traffic activity, search behaviour... Continue reading...

UK Internet Map (as featured on the BBC’s Virtual Revolution)

February 02, 2010

If you managed to catch the first episode of the BBC’s excellent Internet documentary, Virtual Revolution, on Saturday night you may have noticed occasional flashes of “Source: Experian Hitwise” at the bottom of your screen. In amongst interviews with such... Continue reading...

Christmas Dinner – Homemade cheesecakes in; roast potatoes out

January 29, 2010

Guest blog by Jonny Steel, Marketing Insights Manager, mySupermarket.co.uk With Christmas now behind us, it’s time to look back at how our eating habits changed during one of the most financially challenging festive seasons for years. mySupermarket.co.uk, the grocery shopping... Continue reading...

Apple Tablet the fourth most searched for laptop in the UK

January 26, 2010

Apple’s much anticipated – but not yet even announced, just rumoured – Tablet PC became the fourth most searched for laptop model in the UK last week. The table below is from the latest Hitwise Hot Consumer Electronics List, and... Continue reading...

UK Internet visits to skiing and snowboarding websites up 18.5% year on year

January 22, 2010

The recent heavy snow and cold weather may have caused travel chaos in some parts of the UK, but it clearly has also served to remind people of the pleasures of winter sports. For the week ending 9th January 2010,... Continue reading...

Last minute surge in online retail traffic before VAT increase

January 04, 2010

The UK VAT rate returned to 17.5% on January 1st and, as a result, UK Internet searches related to the change also increased. As the chart below illustrates, searches for our “VAT Increase” portfolio (which includes terms such as ‘vat... Continue reading...

Shop opening times searches up 11% this Christmas

December 30, 2009

Just after Easter we wrote a blog about the popularity of searches for shop opening times / hours. That analysis showed that searches for retailer opening times spiked during the May and August bank holidays, over Easter, and at Christmas... Continue reading...

Post-Christmas retail round up: online and offline traffic spikes on Boxing Day

December 29, 2009

As we’ve pointed out for the last couple of years, the post-Christmas period has become increasingly important for online retailers – and this year is proving no exception. Boxing Day (December 26th) was again the busiest day for online retailers... Continue reading...

Google Chrome searches double following advertising campaign

December 22, 2009

Google doesn’t do much offline advertising, but the search giant is currently running a high profile campaign for its Chrome browser. The campaign - which has included a wrap around supplement in the Metro newspaper and a lot of ongoing... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 09:51 AM | (1)
In Categories Branding | Fast moving search terms | Google | Search

2009 online: the year in review

December 21, 2009

The end of the year presents and excellent opportunity for reflection, and also for lists. Combining the two, I’ve decided to reflect on the last year of online activity in the UK by providing a list of our most popular... Continue reading...

Will Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry to the Christmas number one spot?

December 14, 2009

Following Richard Seymour’s successful prediction a couple of weeks ago that Joe McElderry would win the X Factor, we though it would be interesting to see if our data could help answer another pressing question: could the Internet campaign to... Continue reading...

Joe to win X Factor - X Factor predictions update

December 11, 2009

Another guest post from Experian Hitwise Client Intelligence Analyst Richard Seymour updating our data from last weeks X Factor predictions Looking at the data from the week ending 5th December, after the Final 4 live show we can see that... Continue reading...

Who will win The X Factor 2009?

December 04, 2009

In this guest post, Experian Hitwise Client Intelligence Analyst Richard Seymour uses our data to try and predict who will win this year’s X Factor... We have a number of Hitwise tools and data sets that we can use to... Continue reading...

Video Games searches overtake Mobile Phones following release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

November 20, 2009

UK Internet searches for video games increased by 28% last week following the release of the much hyped and anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. As the chart below illustrates, Video Games overtook Mobile Phones to become the most... Continue reading...

Google Doodle: Sesame Street vs. Wallace and Gromit

November 10, 2009

Last week Google replaced its traditional logo with two Google Doodles. The first celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Wallace and Gromit, the second Sesame Street’s fortieth birthday. The chart below illustrates the increase in searches for the terms ‘wallace and... Continue reading...

UK Halloween and fancy dress costume searches increasing

November 02, 2009

Judging by the amount of merchandise for sale in the shops, it feels like Halloween becomes more popular every year in the UK. And Hitwise search data seems to bear this out: the chart below illustrates the breadth of searches... Continue reading...

Motor and car insurance search behaviour

October 27, 2009

Today we present another guest post from Richard Seymour, Experian Hitwise Client Intelligence Analyst. The data is based on the excellent research that he carried out for our recent UK Insurance webinar. The chart below illustrates searches for portfolios containing... Continue reading...

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...

Liverpool beach ball searches

October 19, 2009

As you might expect, following Darren Bent’s freak beach ball goal for Sunderland against Liverpool on Saturday, UK beach ball-related internet searches shot up. As the chart below illustrates, the breadth of searches for the term ‘beach ball’ (which measures... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:50 AM | (0)
In Categories Fast moving search terms | Football | Search | Sport

Searches for climate change and energy efficiency (Blog Action Day)

October 15, 2009

Today is Blog Action Day and, as with last year, Alan Long has beaten me to it with an excellent post on this year’s topic, climate change. I’m taking a similar approach, looking at climate changes related searches in the... Continue reading...

Micro pig searches benefit the Daily Mail and Telegraph

October 14, 2009

As we pointed out via Twitter on Monday, the fastest moving search term in the UK last week was ‘micro pigs’. These extremely cute little pigs are the latest pet trend, and have already picked the inevitable celebrity endorsements -... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 09:48 AM | (0)
In Categories Animals | Fast moving search terms | News and Media | Search

Ukraine vs. England: a success for online video and Bet365

October 12, 2009

By most accounts, the screening of the Ukraine vs. England football match online was a success. The live video stream picked up an estimated audience of half a million and there were few technical complaints. The website that screened the... Continue reading...

Pre-Christmas sales searches: let the game of Retail Chicken commence!

October 09, 2009

We’ve written a lot about the growth of voucher searches and the emergence of the ‘maximising consumer’ recently. Indeed, UK Internet searches for discount vouchers continue to increase: as of last week, searches for our portfolio of voucher-related searches were... Continue reading...

How do people search for travel in the UK?

October 07, 2009

Today we present another guest post from Richard Seymour, Experian Hitwise Client Intelligence Analyst. The data is based on the excellent research that he and Iain Congdon, another Experian Hitwise analyst in the UK, carried out for our recent Global... Continue reading...

Microsoft Xbox 360 takes console top spot despite Sony PS3 Slim surge

October 02, 2009

Over the last couple of Christmases, Nintendo (both the Wii and DS) consoles have ruled the roost, but it looks as if this Christmas things will be quite different. The chart below illustrates searches for our portfolios of console-specific search... Continue reading...

50%+ increases in US and Australian Internet searches for flights to the UK

September 30, 2009

Both American and Australian Internet searches for flights to the UK have increased by more than 50% over the last 12 months. Between August 2008 and August 2009 the volume of Internet searches for a portfolio of search terms relating... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:50 AM | (0)
In Categories Demographics | Search | Travel

The importance of photo searches

September 29, 2009

Whilst looking through this week’s list of fast moving search terms, one term that caught my eye was ‘great north run photos’. As the chart below illustrates, searches for the term spiked last week (w/e 26/09/09) in line with the... Continue reading...

Nescafe reward scheme and advertising campaign

September 24, 2009

One industry that has struggled to take full advantage of the possibilities offered by the Internet is Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). This is partly because it generally doesn’t sell goods directly to consumers, but also a consequence of their... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:00 AM | (0)
In Categories Branding | Food | Search

Record week for Google News

September 21, 2009

A while ago we highlighted how Google News UK picks up more traffic from searches for celebrities than any other type of news. Last week was a bumper week for celebrity news stories (unfortunately for sad reasons in many cases),... Continue reading...

Microsoft Bing News Search

August 27, 2009

Amongst all of the excitement about Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, one element of the new service that hasn’t received a huge amount of coverage is its news search function. Bing News Search offers a similar service to Google News,... Continue reading...

Car scrappage scheme online

August 25, 2009

The government’s car scrappage scheme has been live for a few months now, and the consensus from the industry seems to be that it is starting to have an impact on new car sales. Looking at our search data, the... Continue reading...

Voucher searches up 47.5% in a year

August 17, 2009

UK Internet searches for discount vouchers have increased by 47.5% over the last 12 months. The increase in searches for a portfolio of 4,500+ voucher-related search terms between the weeks ending 02/08/2008 and 01/08/2009 clearly reflects British consumers’ hunger for... Continue reading...

Mortgages: Deposits and Fixed Rates

July 29, 2009

With Robin enjoying the thrills of being a new father, he has left the blog-reigns to me, Richard Seymour - Client Intelligence Analyst at Hitwise UK, for a couple of weeks. I’ve recently experienced a ‘life-event’ of my own by... Continue reading...

The role of paid search and comparison sites in the insurance sector

July 14, 2009

The insurance industry relies on paid search traffic more than most other online sectors. During June 2009, 33.0% of all the UK Internet traffic that insurance websites received from search engines came via paid clicks. That paid search rate is... Continue reading...

Searching to stay cool

July 06, 2009

Following last week’s heat wave, us Brits turned to the web in order to find ways to keep cool. The fastest moving search term sending traffic to our Shopping and Classifieds category last week was ‘paddling pools’. This was joined... Continue reading...

Are online discount vouchers on the decline?

July 01, 2009

As we’ve reported a number of times, online vouchers have been one of the recent online success stories. Voucher searches shot up massively in the run up to Christmas as savvy shoppers looked to find a bargain during the recession.... Continue reading...

Twitter sending traffic to online media sites, but not online retailers

June 24, 2009

Thanks to everyone that listened to today’s Twitter webinar - we managed to reach capacity with 200 people logged in!. If you missed it, we’ll be posting the recording soon and will email / blog / tweet the link. In... Continue reading...

Apple iPhone 3G S vs Nokia N97

June 18, 2009

The launches on June 19th of two 3G touchscreen phones from the most searched for mobile phone brands in the UK, Apple and Nokia, have created a buzz in the Hitwise office this week. Hitwise UK’s resident gadget expert, Client... Continue reading...

Local Internet data: Liverpool example

June 15, 2009

Last month I had the pleasure of speaking at the Digital Editors Network forum, an event organized by Francois Nel from the Journalism Leaders Program at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). One of the topics that came up during... Continue reading...

Revision searches and BBC Bitesize

June 10, 2009

One of the fastest moving websites last week was BBC Schools, which experienced a 40% increase in traffic to become the 106th most visited website in the UK. However, as the chart below illustrates, last week’s spike wasn’t the first... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 09:50 AM | (2) | (0)
In Categories BBC | Education | Search

Initial Bing stats

June 08, 2009

Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, was announced by Steve Balmer on May 28 and officially launched on June 3. I’ve held off putting up our initial UK statistics until now for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I couldn’t think of... Continue reading...

Sims 3, top transactional websites and the latest Experian Insight Report.

June 04, 2009

Not a full blog entry for once, but a list of links to some other great content from elsewhere within Hitwise and Experian. Firstly, a great new blog from Hitwise Client Intelligence Analyst Richard Seymour on the rollercoaster ride of... Continue reading...

ITV.com traffic reaches record high thanks to Britain’s Got Talent

June 01, 2009

The Britain’s Got Talent final attracted 19.2 million viewers on Saturday night, making it the most watched non-sporting television programme since 2003. The ITV show, which was won by dance troupe Diversity rather than favourite Susan Boyle, picked up almost... Continue reading...

Increase in traffic to train, bus and coach websites

May 26, 2009

Despite positive news from Virgin Atlantic today, there is no doubt that these are tough times for the airline industry. UK Internet traffic to websites in our Aviation – Commercial Airlines category (which is dominated by the airline's homepages) was... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:00 AM | (0)
In Categories Economy | Maps | Search | Travel

Mobile phone recycling searches treble

May 22, 2009

Internet searches related to the recycling of mobile phones have almost trebled over the last 12 months. UK Internet searches for a portfolio of mobile phone recycling search terms – such as ‘recycle mobile phones’, ‘mobile phone recycling’ and ‘phone... Continue reading...

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...

London Marathon: 2010 searches overtake 2009

May 07, 2009

As you would expect, UK Internet traffic to the official London Marathon website spiked last week and was up 25% on the previous year. Searches for the race also increased, but I was surprised to see both ‘london marathon 2009’... Continue reading...

Swine flu searches increase 58-fold

May 05, 2009

UK Internet searches for ‘swine flu’ increased 58-fold last week, making it Britain’s fastest moving search term. Of the 10.9 million distinct search terms we tracked in the UK last week, ‘swine flu’ ranked 20th. As the chart below illustrates,... Continue reading...

Travel industry experiences decline in paid search

April 30, 2009

Last week I highlighted the overall decline in the UK paid search rate over the last 12 months, and focused on the retail sector in particular. I also promised to provide similar analysis for some other industries, so here is... Continue reading...

Online retailers receiving less traffic from paid search, but more from social networks

April 22, 2009

The amount of traffic that online retailers receive from paid search – i.e. from sponsored or paid for links on search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, Live and Ask - has fallen over the last 12 months. During March 2009,... Continue reading...

Interest rates: the relationship between online and offline behaviour

April 15, 2009

The Internet is now a key source of info for the majority of people in the UK. Consequently, search engines are one of the first places people turn to for information on everything from celebrity culture to the global financial... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:45 AM | (0)
In Categories Economy | Financial Services | News and Media | Search

Shop opening times searches: an SEO opportunity?

April 14, 2009

While perusing this week’s fast moving search terms (i.e. the search terms in each category that experienced the biggest increase in volume between last week and the week before), the list for our Shopping and Classifieds category caught my eye.... Continue reading...

Festival fever and a good week for the NME

April 08, 2009

The sun may be shining, but it’s not quite time for the music festivals yet (it has to start raining for that to happen). However, following the release of the Reading and Leeds Festival line-ups in the NME last week,... Continue reading...

What would a Google-Twitter marriage mean?

April 06, 2009

Last week it was reported that Google is in talks to purchase Twitter. Therefore, now seems like a good time to revisit some of the stats, starting with the top level traffic figures. As the chart below illustrates, UK Internet... Continue reading...

Sales searches drive department store traffic

April 02, 2009

The spring sales have started on the high street, and department stores are the main beneficiaries online. While UK Internet visits to our Shopping and Classifieds parent category increased by just 0.9% last week, a custom category of ‘traditional’ high... 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...

BBC F1 and the new England Kit

March 30, 2009

The Formula 1 season kicked off this weekend, with Jenson Button pulling off a surprise victory for the new Brawn team. This year the UK television coverage has returned to the BBC after more than a decade with ITV. In... 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...

Fair weather searches

March 25, 2009

Whenever the sun comes out, us Brits flock to parks, beaches and al fresco restaurants to make the most of that most precious of commodities (in the UK at least): sunshine. As you might expect, our online behaviour also changes... Continue reading...

Google Maps visits up 41% following UK Street View launch

March 20, 2009

Following the launch of Google Street View in the UK yesterday (19 March 2009), UK Internet visits to Google Maps UK Increased by 41%. This was the busiest ever day for Google Maps in the UK, and as a result... Continue reading...

Online video traffic up 41%; BBC iPlayer 22nd most popular UK website

March 19, 2009

UK Internet traffic to Video websites has increased by 40.7% over the last 12 months. During February 2009, 1 in every 35 UK Internet visits went to a specialist Video website, up from 1 in every 50 in February 2008.... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM | (2)
In Categories BBC | Search | TV | Video

Apprenticeships and The Apprentice

March 13, 2009

UK Internet visits to the homepage of The Apprentice, the BBC TV show starring Sir Alan Sugar, have shot up over the last week. Some of this traffic is a result of anticipation for the forthcoming fifth series, but most... Continue reading...

TV and Games are UK's most searched for subjects

March 09, 2009

For our second guest posting on the UK blog, I’d like to hand over to Richard Seymour, Hitwise UK Client Intelligence Analyst, to take us through some of the research he has carried out recently on UK Search Engines. For... Continue reading...

Facebook the most searched for brand in the UK

March 05, 2009

Britain’s favourite social network and the second most visited website in the UK after Google, is also the most searched-for brand by UK Internet users. During the 12 weeks ending 3 January 2009, 1 in every 42 Internet searches in... Continue reading...

What are we scared of?

February 23, 2009

In his book Click (which has just been published in the UK), one of the topics that Bill Tancer discusses is using search data to get an understanding of what people really think about a topic – as opposed to... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:40 AM | (5) | (0)
In Categories Click | Search | TV

The Sun and the Baby Father

February 19, 2009

According to Journalism.co.uk, the Sun’s February 13th story about the 13 year old ‘baby father’ Alfie Patten became the newspaper’s most popular online article of all time. As the chart below illustrates, the Sun’s market share of UK Internet visits... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 09:30 AM | (0)
In Categories News and Media | Search | Social networks

“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...

Searches for e-books double

February 02, 2009

Over the last year UK interest in e-books has grown significantly, with searches for ‘ebooks’ doubling between January 2008 and 2009. There are four main e-book readers currently available: the Amazon Kindle, the Sony Reader, the Borders iLiad, and the... Continue reading...

Searching for the recession

January 28, 2009

Now that the UK is officially in recession, we thought it would be a good time to look at downturn-related searches. The table below charts the volume of searches for 4 key terms over the last 12 months, and of... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 04:30 PM | (0)
In Categories Economy | Employment | Government | Search

eMusic and the Long Tail

January 20, 2009

The online music retailer eMusic has put out some interesting data that, it is claimed, supports the famous “Long Tail” theory of online retail. Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired magazine, coined the phrase in a 2004 article,... Continue reading...

Flight search and travel data update

January 15, 2009

After reporting a decline in flight searches last week in the FT and on our blog, we received a number of comments: on the blog post, via Twitter and elsewhere. Many of the questions have been addressed in the comments... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:30 AM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Economy | Search | Travel

Vouchers vs. sales: battle of the online discounts

January 13, 2009

Around this time last year we reported that post-Christmas sales searches had trebled; a couple of weeks ago we noted that this year the increase was just 3.2%. However, if Christmas 2007 was the year that online sales went mainstream,... Continue reading...

Searches for flights down 42% on last year

January 08, 2009

UK Internet searches for flights have fallen by 42% over the last 12 months. January is a key month for the travel industry, as UK consumers’ thoughts turn from Christmas shopping to booking their summer holidays, but the economic downturn... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:00 AM | (9) | (0)
In Categories Economy | Search | Travel

Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai most searched for Bollywood stars

January 07, 2009

Last week UK Internet searches for a portfolio of 100+ Bollywood stars was 68% higher than a year ago. Here is a list of the top 20 most searched for actors and actresses from that portfolio over the 4 weeks... Continue reading...

Healthy New Year? Gym traffic up, diet searches down

January 05, 2009

Happy New Year! Many readers - including the lucky ones who got a Wii Fit for Christmas - will be hoping for a healthy new year, and they’re not alone. It’s the time for New Year’s Resolutions, and getting fit... Continue reading...

TVs, Computers and iPods most popular sales items

December 31, 2008

The table below lists the 10 most searched for consumer electronics products last week (which included the key sales days of Christmas Day and Boxing Day) and the week before. Searches for televisions increased by 148% last week, making the... Continue reading...

UK online retail: Christmas round up

December 29, 2008

Given the economic conditions, people are watching Christmas retail numbers like hawks. Below are the key numbers for online shopping in the UK over the last few days. Sales searches up 3.2% Combined, UK Internet searches for the terms ‘sales’... Continue reading...

Traffic to E Cards websites up 11.8%

December 24, 2008

Yesterday I claimed that we’d written our final UK blog post before Christmas, but I thought this data was too interesting not to share! As the chart below illustrates, last week traffic to E Cards websites was up 11.8% on... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 08:30 AM | (0)
In Categories Christmas | Economy | Search

Simon’s cat, his sister’s dog and the RSPCA

December 19, 2008

Simon’s Cat is an extremely popular animated series created by Simon Tofield. Since releasing his first short film via YouTube at the start of the year, searches for ‘simons cat’ have shot up, peaking in July when a new episode... Continue reading...

Nintendo Wii and DS account for two-thirds of console searches

December 18, 2008

Nintendo’s Wii Console, which accounted for more than one in three games console searches in November, overtook Nintendo’s Wii Fit to become the UK’s most searched-for product in November. The company’s DS Lite was also the fastest growing console online,... Continue reading...

Apple iPhone pulls away from its closest competitors

December 18, 2008

While mobile phones continue to be the most searched-for product in the UK, they have seen a 23% decrease in searches since October as consumers turn their attention to Christmas gifts such as toys, video games and games consoles. Despite... Continue reading...

Retro toys dominate as searches for toys double in the run up to Christmas

December 18, 2008

UK Internet searches for toys doubled during November as the gift buying season began in earnest. Guess Who Extra, an updated electronic version of the classic 1980’s game, was the most searched-for game during November, accounting for one in every... Continue reading...

Property websites and the online house price crash

December 17, 2008

In September we revealed that online House and Garden retailers had overtaken Property websites in terms of UK Internet visits. As you would expect, in the three months since that blog post, the situation has only got worse for online... Continue reading...

Pre-Christmas peaks in online retail traffic

December 16, 2008

In our retail webinar last week I noted that UK pre-Christmas Internet traffic to Shopping and Classified websites has already started to decline from its peak on Sunday November 30th. As the data in the chart below illustrates, the week... Continue reading...

Netbooks account for 1 in every 7 computer searches

December 11, 2008

In the next instalment of Hitwise Client Intelligence Analyst Richard Seymour’s analysis of the consumer electronics market, Richard talks about another fast-growing consumer electronics area – Netbooks, the small to medium sized, light-weight, low-cost, energy-efficient laptops optimized for web usage.... Continue reading...

133% increase in voucher searches

December 09, 2008

A whole online sector has emerged to feed British consumers’ hunger for discount vouchers for everything from supermarket shopping and pizzas to discounts at high end department stores. One in every 200 visits to an online retail website now comes... 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...

John Sergeant and Strictly Come Dancing online

November 21, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, when we predicted that Diana Vickers will win X-Factor, I opened my blog post thus: ‘Now that we’ve got the American election and the Glenrothes by-election out of the way, we can finally direct our... Continue reading...

Apple iPhone the most searched for mobile phone in the UK…just

November 18, 2008

Last week we reported that the Nintendo Wii Fit video game is currently the most searched for product in the UK. In that post we also identified the Apple iPhone as the third most searched for product, followed by the... Continue reading...