16 people to make big impact on Australian Internet use

The widespread appeal of the latest instalment of the Big Brother series is further illustrated by its considerable online impact. After one full week of screening, Big Brother Australia (bigbrother.3mobile.com.au) became the 18th most frequently visited website by Australian Internet users and the most popular 'Television - Programme' website with a market share of 55% as of the week ending May 15. Page Impression data available for the same period suggests that bigbrother.3mobile.com.au accounts for almost 1% of total Australian Internet activity. Although the websites popularity appears to be stabilising this week ranking 21st overall, Hitwise expects the website's market share to spike as key events unfold in the unscripted drama.

The most popular search phrase employed by website visitors was 'big brother', accounting for 36.62% of all search terms that delivered users to the website. 74.64% of searches used a combination of two or three search terms. Google Australia (www.google.com.au) delivered 58% of search engine traffic to the website, while Yahoo! Australia & New Zealand Search (au.search.yahoo.com) accounted for 13% and relative newcomer ninemsn Search (search.ninemsn.com.au) provided the site with a further 11%.

Channel 10 benefited greatly from its association with its talent program The X-Factor (www.thexfactoronten.com.au) and the networks homepage (www.ten.com.au) receiving a combined total of approximately 5.5% of the popular programmes downstream traffic this week. While last week, commercial relationships between the programme and telecommunications service providers 3 Mobile (www.three.com.au) and Blueskyfrog (www.blueskyfrog.com) began to pay dividends, with the websites capturing 2.8% and 1% of the enormous downstream traffic flow respectively.

The worldwide popularity of blogs as a complimentary source of information can be observed locally after the recent launch of MSN Spaces (spaces.msn.com), which now commands more than 30% of all 'Lifestyle - Blogs & Personal Websites' traffic.

Alongside the blogs of established political commentators Margo Kingston (webdiary.smh.com.au) and Tim Blair (timblair.blogspot.com), Hitwise is finding more singular purpose blogs are becomming popular. Websites such as the Douglas Wood Family Website (www.thewoodfamily.info) and the blog of controversial Melbourne businessman Andrew Landeryou (andrewlanderyou.blogspot.com) are good examples.

User visits to 'Lifestyle - Blogs and Personal Websites' as a proportion of total Australian Internet activity have increased by 56% over the last 12 months. In recent weeks Hitwise has identified and begun tracking 12 websites featuring information and opinions focused on the Schapelle Corby case.

The following report lists the most popular terms typed into search engines over the 12 week period ending 14/05/05, that resulted in traffic to websites within Hitwise's 'Health & Medical - Hospitals' industry. For example, the most popular search term was 'flinders medical centre' representing 2.11% of all search terms that delivered users to websites in the 'Health & Medical - Hospitals' industry.

Fast Mover: 2005/06 Commonwealth Budget

www.budget.gov.au
Government - National

Rank April 30 - 364
Rank last week - 43
Positions jumped - 321

After being delivered to Parliament on May 10, the website of the Federal Budget 2005-06 has rocketed up the Hitwise rankings, leaping some 321 places over two weeks. The 10th successive budget from this government has undergone intense analysis as Internet users descended on the website. Hitwise can report that female users featured heavily among visitors; accounting for 70.69% of users compared with 43.66% after last years Federal Budget. Popular downstream websites included the online presence of The Australian (www.theaustralian.news.com.au) 5.63% and the Australian Taxation Office (www.ato.gov.au) 4.93%. The top three searches used to deliver users to the website were 'federal budget 2005', 'budget 2005' and 'budget': accounting for 8.9%, 7.53% and 6.85% of all search phrases respectively. Users were more likely to reach the website using a combination of search terms, with 34.93% of users employing two search terms and a further 25.34% of users employing 3 search terms. On average, users spent 4 minutes and 50 seconds at the website.

Category Spotlight: Shopping & Classifieds – Grocery & Alcohol

This category includes the sites of grocery stores and supermarkets, as well as websites that facilitate the purchase of groceries and alcohol online. The date below is based on Local sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 14/05/2005 » Ranks by 'Visits'.

Top 10 Shopping & Classifieds – Grocery & Alcohol sites for Australian audiences		Local Competitiveness Index
Coles Online Woolworths Australia Coles HomeShop ALDI Australia Lite n' Easy Australia Wine Star Dan Murphy's Shopfast.com.au Langtons Fine Wine Auctions		82.4% of traffic to this category was directed at domestic sites.

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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, May 2005