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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

Analyst Weblog

Category Archives: Social networks

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...

Are you attracting the right type of Facebook fans?

September 13, 2011

Back in June I wrote a blog highlighting our research showing that each new Facebook fan generates on average 20 additional visits to a retailer’s website. However, as every retailer knows, not all website visits are equal. Most eCommerce sites... Continue reading...

Picture is clear for Skype video calls on Facebook

July 08, 2011

The big story that has grabbed people’s attentions in the digital world this week is Facebook’s announcement of a new video calling feature which will be powered by Skype. Looking at the Mosaic groups which visit Facebook and the Skype... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 08:37 AM | (0)
In Categories Facebook | Google | Social networks | Video

1 Facebook fan = 20 additional visits to your website

June 23, 2011

We’ve been talking at Hitwise for a very long time about the benefits of social media and how Facebook in particular is becoming critical to the success of multi-channel marketing. We are constantly asked: “What’s the ROI with advertising on... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 08:40 AM | (7) | (0)
In Categories Demographics | Facebook | Social networks

YouTube and Twitter erode Facebook’s dominance of social

June 14, 2011

In this month’s search and social analysis release we saw some pretty interesting trends in our Social Networking and Forums category, including a bumper month of traffic for Twitter, extended growth for YouTube and a declining market share for Facebook.... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 09:56 AM | (0)
In Categories Facebook | Social networks | Twitter | Video

Twitter accounts for 1 in every 184 UK Internet visits online

May 23, 2011

Twitter just keeps on growing, reaching another new peak in UK Internet traffic this weekend on Saturday 21 May. The site experienced its highest ever volume of online traffic on Saturday, accounting for 0.54% of all UK Internet visits that... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 03:51 PM | (0)
In Categories Social networks | Twitter

Twitter has biggest ever day of online traffic after super injunction revelations

May 10, 2011

Twitter had its highest ever peak in UK Internet visits yesterday (9 May 2011) due to the extraordinary revelations of the super injunction scandal, which exposed the identities of several high profile celebrities. Visits to Twitter increased by 14% on... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 03:08 PM | (0)
In Categories Celebrities | Social networks | Twitter

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...

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...

ChildLine increases traffic by 900% thanks to Facebook

February 17, 2011

With Comic Relief just around the corner next month the charity sector is picking itself up after the busy Christmas period. However, although the Comic Relief website has been increasing its market share of visits to the charity sector in... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 02:04 PM | (4) | (0)
In Categories Charities | Facebook | Social networks

Facebook more popular than Google on Christmas Day

December 26, 2010

As we predicted last week, for the first ever time Facebook received more UK Internet visits that Google UK on Christmas Day. As the chart below illustrates, on Christmas Day (December 25th) facebook.com accounted for 10.50% of all UK Internet... Continue reading...

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...

Digital Death provides boon of Life for kids charity

December 08, 2010

Running an effective social media campaign is no easy task for any company, but for a charity with limited marketing resources that challenge is especially difficult. Perhaps the greatest success to date of an excellent charitable social media campaign was... Continue reading...

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...

Facebook Mail may kill Gmail but can it tackle Hotmail?

November 15, 2010

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is hosting a media event later today which is expected to announce the launch of a Facebook email service – already being dubbed the ‘Gmail Killer’. Facebook have remained tight lipped about the announcement, but the... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 02:16 PM | (4) | (0)
In Categories Email | Google | Social networks

10 things you need to know about Facebook

October 12, 2010

With the release of The Social Network this week, retelling the story of Facebook, I thought it a good time to look at just how popular the world’s biggest social networking site is. Many stats will be quoted in the... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 08:41 AM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Social networks

Nokia social media drive pushes N8 into the spotlight

October 05, 2010

Nokia’s new smartphone, the N8 started shipping last Friday bringing the Finnish mobile company right back into competition with the likes of Apple for the hotly contested smartphone market. Apple’s iPhone remains the dominant product in the market and so... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 01:50 PM | (0)
In Categories Mobile phones | Social networks

Canterbury top digital city in the UK

October 01, 2010

The Internet has become an integral part of a lot of people’s lives in the UK. Certain cities are particularly digitally integrated however, and surprisingly, London is not the online hub of the UK. In our analysis of Internet usage... Continue reading...

Kim Kardashian most popular celebrity using Twitter

September 30, 2010

Twitter has attracted some very high profile users in the last three years with Britney Spears, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross all big advocates of the micro-blogging platform. However, the most popular celebrity to use Twitter... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 04:50 PM | (3) | (0)
In Categories Celebrities | Social networks | Twitter

Digg.com redesign alienates users

September 23, 2010

The Internet can be a fickle creature, but if there is one lesson that seems to consistently ring true it’s this: don’t alienate your core users. It’s a lesson that digg.com is learning the hard way. Having been a paragon... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 04:29 PM | (14) | (0)
In Categories Social networks

Can the mobile market accommodate a Facebook Phone? What the social network can learn from Google

September 22, 2010

With rumours circulating around the web that Facebook is set to join the mobile market with its very own handset device, it’s worth asking whether the mobile market is ready and able to accommodate yet another player into an already... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 02:57 PM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Google | Mobile phones | Social networks

Facebook accounts for 1 in 6 UK page views, but is it reaching saturation point?

August 09, 2010

Facebook is the second most visited website in the UK: in June it accounted for 7.14% of all UK Internet visits and over half (54.48%) of all visits to a social networking websites. In terms of total visits it continues... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:53 AM | (5) | (0)
In Categories Social networks | Top UK websites

LoveFilm: the 11th most visited online retailer in the UK

June 17, 2010

Yesterday BBC Radio 4’s consumer affairs program You and Yours included an item on LoveFilm, the online DVD rental and movie streaming service. It included an interview with the company’s CEO Simon Calver, as well as myself talking about the... 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...

Bigot-gate and the role of social networks in the election

April 29, 2010

Gordon Brown’s unfortunate gaff yesterday – already inevitably christened ‘Bigot-gate’ – was the big political story yesterday, and probably the second major event of the election (after Nick Clegg’s success in the first leadership debate). Accordng to our daily search... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 09:53 AM | (2) | (0)
In Categories 2010 General Election | Politics | Social networks

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...

Political blogs in the run up to the election

April 14, 2010

In yesterday’s post about the surge in online voter registration traffic, I mentioned the demographics of visitors to websites within our Politics category. That is a broad grouping that includes part homepages, blogs, government sites and overseas politics pages such... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:49 AM | (0)
In Categories 2010 General Election | Blogs | Politics | Social networks

The decline of Bebo

April 07, 2010

Following the announcement that AOL is to sell or shut down Bebo, now is as good a time as any to highlight how well the social network is performing in the UK. The table below lists the 10 most visited... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:23 AM | (2) | (2)
In Categories Social networks

Moshi Monsters

March 25, 2010

A couple of days ago we provided some data for this Evening Standard article about the success of Moshi Monsters, the fast growing children’s / games website. Traffic to the site has increased more than five-fold over the last 12... 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

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...

Chatroulette: a posh webcam?

February 15, 2010

This morning I stumbled upon an article in Guardian profiling Chatroulette, a new webcam site that, as its name implies, connects users with random strangers for live video chats. According to the article, the site “is proving a sensation around... 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...

Beautiful People experiences fifty-fold increase in traffic following "fatties" announcement

January 05, 2010

The dating and social networking website Beautifulpeople.com which describes itself as “an exclusively beautiful community”, stirred up a bit of controversy yesterday when it announced the axing some 5,000 members following complaints that they had gained weight. "As a business,... Continue reading...

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...

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...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 09:00 AM | (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...

Tweet 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...

Tweet 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...

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...

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...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM | (18) | (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...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:30 AM | (27) | (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...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM | (11) | (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...

Tweet 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...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 07:30 AM | (1)
In Categories News and Media | Politics | Search | Social networks

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...

Tweet 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...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 05:00 PM | (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...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:00 AM | (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...

Tweet 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...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 03:00 PM | (3) | (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...

Tweet 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...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 04:50 PM | (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...

Tweet 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...

Tweet 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...

Tweet 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...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 08:55 AM | (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...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 01:20 PM | (3) | (0)
In Categories Financial Services | Food | Social networks

Robin Goad

Research Director, Hitwise UK.