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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

Analyst Weblog

Category Archives: Social networks

Facebook accounts for 1 in every 7 UK page views

October 16, 2009

Facebook accounted for 14.5% of all UK Internet page views during September 2009, equivalent to 1 in every 7. The social network is the second most visited website in the UK after Google UK, but because users view a much... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 09:00 AM | (0) | (2)
In Categories Social networks

Twitter overtakes MySpace in the UK

September 01, 2009

Last week Twitter received more UK Internet visits than MySpace for the first time. As the chart below illustrates, for the week ending 29/08/09 Twitter.com picked up 1 in every 400 UK Internet visits and ranked as the 27th most... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 11:39 AM | (4) | (5)
In Categories Social networks | Twitter

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...

Content driven websites receive 73% more traffic than transactional ones

August 13, 2009

The chart on this slide illustrates the percentage of all UK Internet visits accounted for by the largest and most significant online categories – and how this situation has changed over the last three years. As you can see, there... Continue reading...

Friendfeed, Facebook and Twitter

August 11, 2009

Following today’s announcement that Facebook has purchased Friendfeed, I thought a few UK stats on the latter might be of interest. As the chart below illustrates, Friendfeed is a fast growing site, and its traffic has increased by 180% over... 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...

Facebook usernames: record traffic levels

June 15, 2009

Facebook experienced its busiest ever day in the UK yesterday (June 14th), following the launch of its new personalized username capability. The social network was the second busiest website in the UK (after Google UK) on Sunday, picking up 1... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 02:10 PM | (1) | (1)
In Categories Social networks

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...

Top 100 student websites in the UK

June 02, 2009

Yesterday I received a call from Sridhar Venkatapuram of the London Business School asking me about the online behaviour of students in the UK. I mentioned on Twitter that I was pulling a list of the 100 most popular websites... Continue reading...

UK traffic to Polish websites declining

May 28, 2009

Last year we highlighted the massive growth in UK Internet traffic to Polish websites, noting how the increase in visits to a custom category local and expat sites reflected the growth of the Polish immigrant population in the UK. Things... 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...

UK Internet users spending more time on social networks than shopping online

April 21, 2009

UK Internet users are spending less of their online time shopping and more time browsing online media. During March 2009, 8.6% of all UK Internet visits went to online retail websites and 9.8% to social networking websites. A year ago,... 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...

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...

Twitter and UK newspaper websites

March 16, 2009

Last week (w/e 14/03/09) Twitter.com was the 54th most visited website in the UK, up from 66th the week before. One consequence of Twitter rapid rise up the rankings is that the micro-blogging service has now overtaken most of the... 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...

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...

Posted by Robin Goad at 09:30 AM | (0) | (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...

The Telegraph: how to pick up traffic from Digg

February 12, 2009

The Telegraph recently ran an excellent story that included our recent Twitter data. While reading the article I noticed the Digg widget illustrated in the picture below on the newspaper’s homepage. Launched last October it lists the most ‘dugg’ Telegraph... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM | (7) | (0)
In Categories BBC | News and Media | Social networks

Twitter enters top 100 sites; UK traffic has trebled already in 2009

February 10, 2009

Last week (w/e 07/02/09) Twitter became one of the 100 most visited websites in the UK for the first time. It ranked 91st within All Categories, placing above online heavyweights such as Expedia UK (96), Gumtree (100), easyJet (101), Digital... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 11:30 AM | (10) | (4)
In Categories Blogs | Social networks | Twitter

Social networks overtake adult websites

January 26, 2009

Last week we provided the BBC with some interesting data illustrating how UK Internet visits to Social Networks and Forums have overtaken Adult websites. As the chart below illustrates, social networks overtook last October and have remained ahead since. The... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM | (10) | (4)
In Categories Adult | Demographics | Social networks

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...

Social Xmas: Facebook’s busiest day ever, YouTube overtakes Hotmail, Social networks = 10% of UK Internet traffic

December 30, 2008

With all of the focus on the economic downturn and the troubles in the retail sector, it’s easy to forget the continued growth of social networking in the UK. Christmas is traditionally the busiest time of year for social networks,... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 08:00 AM | (5) | (2)
In Categories Christmas | Social networks | Video

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...

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...

Facebook is number 2 website, but the growth of social networks is slowing

October 10, 2008

Of all the websites visited by UK Internet users in September, Facebook was the second most popular after Google UK. The number one social network in Britain received 3.16% of all UK Internet visits last month, equivalent to one in... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Social networks

The role of news aggregators in the UK

October 02, 2008

News aggregators come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from straight forward aggregators (e.g. Google News) to social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Stumble Upon and Delicious. When creating a custom category of the top sites in the UK we... Continue reading...

Fast moving search terms: LHC, big bang, Andy Murray and XL

September 15, 2008

The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. large hardron collider 2. hurricane ike 3. lhc 4. xl 5. big bang 6. tour of britain 7. itv f1 8. andy murray 9. black hole 10.... Continue reading...

Top bands / artists: Katy Perry and Kate Nash

September 05, 2008

Here are the top band / artist searches sending traffic to social networks and music blogs during August. Starting with the social networks, Katy Perry, who topped the British and American charts over the summer with her hit “I Kissed... Continue reading...

Fast moving search terms: Strictly Come Dancing, Pierrepoint, Most Haunted

September 01, 2008

The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. strictly come dancing 2. us open 3. bournemouth air show 4. www.bebo.co.uk 5. most haunted live 6. albert pierrepoint 7. most haunted 8. you tube.com 9. euromillions... Continue reading...

9 in 10 UK searches are navigational / branded

August 14, 2008

We’ve just updated our data on navigational / branded search in the UK for our new research report, Managing Your Brand Online. During May 2008, 88% of searches for the top 2,000 search terms in the UK were branded in... Continue reading...

Top bands / artists online: August 2008 chart

August 07, 2008

Here are this month’s lists of the top 20 band / artist searches sending traffic to social networking sites (e.g. MySpace, YouTube, Last.fm, etc.) and the most popular music blogs for the 4 weeks ending August 2nd. First up social... Continue reading...

Facebook overtakes eBay to become third most visited website

August 05, 2008

Facebook became the third most visited website in the UK during July, overtaking eBay UK on the way. As the chart below illustrates, the social network received 2.75% of all UK Internet visits last month, equivalent to one in every... Continue reading...

Top 5 web 2.0 sites account for 1 in every 15 UK Internet visits

July 22, 2008

We issued a press release today containing our latest social network market share data. Facebook continues to grow its market share in the UK and reached a new high of 45% in June. However, that growth has been at the... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 05:00 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Education | Social networks | Video

Twitter UK traffic: up 485% this year, 70% higher than USA

July 16, 2008

The two Heathers (Hopkins and Dougherty) have both written about the growth of Twitter in the US recently, so here is some UK data on the micro-blogging service. As you can see from the chart below, the site’s growth has... Continue reading...

Hottest bands on the social networks and music blogs

July 10, 2008

A few months ago we posted a list of the top 10 band / artist searches sending traffic to MySpace, the primary destination of searches for new artists. We’ve decided to expand the list to cover our whole Social Networking... Continue reading...

How to save money in a recession

July 09, 2008

Earlier this week I was talking with Bruno Rost, a colleague from Experian Integrated Marketing who was looking for interesting Hitwise data that he could use in a BBC TV interview discussing the effects of the economic downturn on peoples'... Continue reading...

Online fashion retail still growing despite high street slowdown

June 26, 2008

The CBI has issued a report claiming that clothing retailers have just experienced their worst month for quarter of a century. I can only assume that this fall in sales must be down to an underperforming high street, because the... Continue reading...

Euro 2008 and British Football fans

June 11, 2008

Most of the rest of Europe is in the grip or football fever, but how excited is the UK considering that none of the home nations are taking part? ‘euro 2008’ was the most popular search term sending traffic to... Continue reading...

SATC more popular in UK than USA

May 27, 2008

The decision to hold the world premiere of the new Sex and the City movie in London has led to a surge in online searches in the UK. American interest in the film is yet to take off, although this... Continue reading...

Social networking and online shopping bigger in rural areas

May 22, 2008

This morning I noticed this article from the BBC highlighting a new Ofcom report which concluded that UK broadband penetration is higher in rural than urban areas. Or, as The Register put it, “Broadband bumpkins overtake city surfers”. Originally hailing... 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...

UK DIY and Screwfix

April 03, 2008

Apparently, Good Friday is the busiest DIY day of the year, so I wasn’t surprised to see that traffic to our Shopping and Classifieds: House and Garden category increased noticeably during the Easter week. Slightly more unexpected, however, is the... Continue reading...

Miss Bimbo: who is visiting?

April 01, 2008

The ‘virtual fashion game’ Miss Bimbo has picked up a lot of press - Google News UK was the second ranked site receiving up traffic from the search term ‘miss bimbo’ last week. The website allows users to create a... Continue reading...

Online video traffic up 178% in a year

March 26, 2008

UK Internet traffic to online video websites increased by 178% between February 2007 and 2008. A Hitwise custom category of the top 25 video websites in the UK accounted for 2.22% of all UK Internet visits in February 2008, equivalent... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 11:00 AM | (7) | (5)
In Categories Search | Social networks | Video

Facebook traffic back to Christmas peak

March 25, 2008

Following on from last week's post, Is Facebook on the decline in the UK?, I thought that this chart might be of interest. Facebook's market share of UK Internet visits last week (w/e 22 March 2008) was equal to its... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 03:00 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Social networks

Is Facebook on the decline in the UK?

March 20, 2008

During the last month there have been a number of ‘Facebook is over’ type stories in the press and across the blogosphere. The main reason for this was the very real decline in the social network’s UK market share during... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 09:00 AM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Social networks

Eduardo injury and YouTube

February 26, 2008

The horrific injury sustained by Arsenal’s Brazilian-born Croatian striker Eduardo da Silva has led to an outpouring of sympathy from football fans, and not just supporters of Arsenal or Croatia. Searches for ‘eduardo’ increased almost forty-fold last week, and ‘eduardo... Continue reading...

UK Polish Internet usage on the rise

February 20, 2008

Estimates as to the number of Polish people in the UK range from half a million to over a million. Mass immigration from Central and Eastern Europe has led to a rush for the ‘Polish Pound’, with everyone from multinational... Continue reading...

Brit Awards, MySpace and the top new bands

February 19, 2008

The Brit Awards take place tomorrow evening and there are three awards up for the public vote: best British Breakthrough Act, best British Live Act, and best British Single. The latter is tricky to analyze using search data, but I... Continue reading...

Group Recipes: social networking for the hungry

February 11, 2008

Since publishing our social networking report last month, people have been asking us to identify successful niche social networking / web 2.0 sites. Wel,l here’s one that saw a real jump in traffic last week: Group Recipes. The site operates... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 04:50 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Food | Search | Social networks

LinkedIn demographics: an up-market social network and an up-market job site

January 25, 2008

In yesterday’s post I referred to LinkedIn as part social network, part jobs site. Facebook is the fifth largest site in its upstream clickstream, and last year Sandra wrote about the connections between the two websites. However, LinkedIn has a... Continue reading...

UK job searches and Linkedin

January 24, 2008

I wanted to expand on Sandra’s excellent post comparing job searches in the UK, USA and Australia. The table below lists the top UK searches containing the word ‘jobs’ for the 4 weeks ending 12 January 2008 for three types... Continue reading...

Scrabulous, Facebook and Scrabble

January 16, 2008

You may have heard that Hasbro, which produces the popular board game Scrabble, is asking Facebook to remove its Scrabulous app. As the name suggests, Scrabulous is an online version of Scrabble that has become one of the most popular... Continue reading...

Facebook: 1 in 50 UK Internet visits

January 15, 2008

Facebook’s market share of UK internet visits to All Categories increased to 2.01% in December. The social networking website accounted for one in every fifty UK internet visits in the last month of 2007, with its market share peaking on... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 10:16 AM | (4) | (1)
In Categories Social networks

Facebook poppy appeal

November 14, 2007

You probably noticed the various poppy applications on Facebook in the run up to Armistice Day. On seeing these, the question on my mind was: aside from enabling people to put a poppy on their Facebook profile, what else did... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 01:30 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Charities | Social networks

Social networks overtake webmail

November 06, 2007

For the fist time last month, UK Internet visits to social networks overtook visits to web-based email services. As the chart below illustrates, our custom category of the top 25 social networks, which includes Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, accounted for... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 11:00 PM | (8) | (8)
In Categories Social networks

Social networks' retail impact has increased by 153% in the UK since last Christmas

October 23, 2007

The amount of UK Internet traffic online retailers receive from social networks increased by 153% between December 2006 and September 2007. This September, 3.1% of UK Internet visits to the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds category came from a Hitwise custom... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 08:55 AM | (0) | (1)
In Categories Shopping and Classifieds | Social networks

HSBC, Cadbury's and Facebook

September 05, 2007

There are many differing opinions as to the impact – positive or negative – of social networks on other sites, and a couple of recent examples provide some insight from either side of the fence. One positive side there was... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 01:20 PM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Financial Services | Food | Social networks

Robin Goad

Research Director, Hitwise UK.