Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK
Analyst Weblog
Category Archives: TV
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 02:30 PM
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In Categories BBC | Blogs | Branding | Celebrities | Demographics | Education | Email | Experian | Fashion | Google | Mosaic lifestyle | News and Media | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds | Social networks | TV | Top UK websites
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 12:50 PM
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In Categories BBC | Celebrities | Fast moving search terms | Music | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | Sport | TV
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 12:10 PM
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In Categories Automotive | BBC | Fashion | Football | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | Sport | TV
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM
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In Categories Celebrities | Football | Gadgets | Google | Movies | Music | News and Media | Politics | Search | Sport | TV | Twitter | Weather
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM
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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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 09:00 AM
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In Categories BBC | Celebrities | Charities | Demographics | Education | Employment | Experian | Government | Mosaic lifestyle | Search | TV
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 02:18 PM
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In Categories Football | Games | Google | Guest posts | News and Media | Search | Social networks | Sport | TV | Travel
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 11:40 AM
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In Categories Click | Search | TV
“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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 07:40 AM
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In Categories Celebrities | Economy | Financial Services | Government | Movies | Music | News and Media | Politics | Search | Social networks | TV
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM
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In Categories BBC | Blogs | Demographics | Google | Humour | News and Media | Politics | Social networks | Sport | TV | Twitter
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 12:30 PM
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In Categories Celebrities | Demographics | Experian | Mosaic lifestyle | Movies | Music | Search | TV | Video
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 09:00 AM
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In Categories Blogs | Charities | Economy | Gadgets | Mobile phones | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | TV
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 09:00 AM
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In Categories Christmas | Fashion | Gadgets | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | Sport | TV | Toys
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 09:20 AM
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In Categories BBC | Celebrities | Demographics | Men | Search | TV | Women
Diana Vickers leading the X Factor pack online
November 07, 2008
Now that we’ve got the American election and the Glenrothes by-election out of the way, we can finally direct our attention to more important voting matters. Last week we showed how ITV’s The X Factor was picking up more online... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 04:00 PM
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In Categories Demographics | Music | Search | TV
TV and US media websites big election winners in the UK
November 06, 2008
The US presidential election was a global media event, and Barack Obama’s historic victory caused a spike in traffic to news websites in the UK. Here is a list of the 10 most visited in the News and Media websites... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 07:30 PM
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In Categories BBC | News and Media | Politics | TV
X Factor vs. Strictly Come Dancing 2008
October 30, 2008
The annual pre-Christmas battle for Saturday night tea time TV supremacy is well under way. In the red corner: ITV’s The X Factor, with Cheryl Cole replacing Sharon Osbourne on the judging panel. In the blue corner: the BBC’s Strictly... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM
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In Categories BBC | Celebrities | Demographics | News and Media | Search | TV | Video | Women
Fast moving search terms: Google Chrome, cautious investors, football and flooding
September 08, 2008
The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. google chrome 2. man city 3. bestival 4. environment agency 5. chrome 6. manchester city 7. burghley horse trials 8. nsandi 9. ns&i 10. setanta sports The... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 01:00 PM
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In Categories Demographics | Economy | Environment | Fast moving search terms | Financial Services | Football | Google | Government | Sport | TV | Weather
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 12:20 PM
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In Categories BBC | Education | Fast moving search terms | Movies | Search | Social networks | Sport | TV | Weather
Fast moving search terms: Olympics, BBC iPlayer, UCAS and fantasy football
August 18, 2008
The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. ucas track 2. bbc olympics 3. fantasy premier league 4. dream team 5. michael phelps 6. tom daley 7. the sun dream team 8. joules 9. last... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 12:00 PM
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In Categories BBC | Demographics | Fashion | Fast moving search terms | Football | Olympics | Retail | Sport | TV | Video
Fast moving search terms: British Gas fallout, Beatrix Potter and diamond geezers
August 04, 2008
The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. beatrix potter 2. diamond geezer 3. southern electric 4. play.com uk 5. bbc cricket 6. u switch 7. carol vorderman 8. racing post 9. currys uk 10.... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 12:00 PM
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In Categories Economy | Fast moving search terms | Olympics | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | Sport | TV | Women
Movie & TV sequels: search behaviour and the retail gap
July 29, 2008
Yesterday we highlighted the appearance of four Batman-related terms this week’s top 10 fast moving search terms chart. A couple of weeks ago we posted about the relationship between searches for the recently released film Adulthood and its predecessor, Kidulthood.... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM
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In Categories Charities | Movies | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | TV
Fast moving search terms: Batman, Now Compilations, Festivals, Runescape
July 28, 2008
The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. now 70 2. christian bale 3. global gathering 4. heath ledger 5. batman 6. dark knight 7. womad 8. shipwrecked 9. runehq 10. hamfatter Four of these... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 11:00 AM
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In Categories Fast moving search terms | Games | Movies | Music | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | TV
Food websites grow as self-sufficiency gains popularity
July 18, 2008
Almost a year ago we investigated the seasonality of popular recipes. Recent analysis for 2008 reveals a similar pattern, with searches for cake recipes featuring heavily again this summer. However, it was interesting to note that visits to the Food... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 11:30 AM
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In Categories BBC | Demographics | Food | News and Media | TV
TV spoilers and Digital Spy
June 25, 2008
Anyone who uses Wikipedia or IMDB frequently will be used to the ‘spoiler warning’ notification when reading an entry on a book or film. While notifications in these and similar websites are designed to help you avoid spoilers, there are... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 10:30 AM
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In Categories News and Media | Search | TV
The Apprentice and BBC iPlayer
June 12, 2008
That’s what I’m talking about! Like nine million other Britons, the Hitwise UK office has been slightly obsessed with The Apprentice over the last few months. We were pleased to see peoples’ choice Lee McQueen crowned winner last night, although... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM
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In Categories Search | TV | Video
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 12:00 PM
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In Categories Fashion | Movies | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | Social networks | TV | Video | Women
Freesat proves popular online
May 14, 2008
The launch of Freesat, the free satellite TV service provided by the BBC and ITV in the UK, proved popular with online consumers during its launch week. UK Internet traffic to www.freesat.co.uk, the service’s online homepage, increased by 627% between... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 12:00 PM
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In Categories Demographics | Gadgets | News and Media | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | TV
Top 10 UK search terms: social networks dominate the list
April 14, 2008
We have just announced the winners of the Hitwise UK Online Performance Awards 2007, so congratulations to all of the websites that placed within their industry top 10. In addition to the top websites, we also announced the top 10... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 04:00 PM
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In Categories Music | News and Media | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | TV
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...
Posted by Robin Goad at 05:00 PM
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In Categories Music | Search | Social networks | TV
BBC iPlayer traffic increases 14-fold in a month
January 10, 2008
UK Internet traffic to the BBC’s iPlayer website increased 14-fold between the week ending 8 December 2007 and the week ending 5 January. The online catch-up TV service ranked as the 80th most visited website in the UK for the... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM
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In Categories Search | TV
Lyrics, X-Factor and Christmas number one
December 11, 2007
Until recently, people used to complain that the traditional Christmas number one race had been hijacked by novelty records from the likes of Mr Blobby (1993) and Bob the Builder (2000). In fact, novelty records seem to make it about... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 12:00 PM
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In Categories Christmas | Music | Search | TV
Alesha Dixon to win Strictly Come Dancing?
December 07, 2007
A couple of weeks ago we posted about the rivalry between the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s The X-Factor, including a promise to make some predictions as to who would win the shows based our search data. Well, Strictly... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 09:00 AM
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In Categories Demographics | Search | TV | Women
X-Factor vs. Strictly Come Dancing
November 15, 2007
The annual battle for Saturday tea time supremacy between ITV’s The X-Factor and the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing is well under way. It seems that the Bruce Forsythe fronted show has the edge when it comes to TV ratings, but... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 03:00 PM
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In Categories TV
Control, Manchester and Factory Records
October 09, 2007
Last week I was in Manchester for the excellent Manchester Digital conference. As a music fan, the city is forever linked in my mind with the Factory Records and the late Anthony H. Wilson. There have been a number of... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM
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In Categories Movies | Music | TV | Travel
Bratz the most popular toys in the run up to Christmas
October 05, 2007
Following a charity interlude, here is the penultimate Christmas shopping 'hot products' list. Analysis of the top search terms sending traffic to top 100 UK online retailers shows that the most popular girls' toys, dolls, are 29% more popular than... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 01:49 PM
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In Categories Movies | Music | TV | Toys
High School Musical dominates in the year of the downloads
September 28, 2007
Following yesterday's post on the top gadgets in the run up to Christmas, today I reveal the most searched for entertainment products. The most noticable trend is the massive increase in searches for entertainment downloads, which currently outstrip searches for... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 05:30 PM
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In Categories Movies | Music | Search | TV
Big Brother searchers prefer blondes
September 04, 2007
Bill is a huge fan of American Idol, although I think that it’s using search data to predict the results that appeals to him more than the music itself. As he points out, the use of search data for such... Continue reading...
Posted by Robin Goad at 06:20 PM
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In Categories TV


