Web Surfers Search for Million Dollar Question
Television viewers scrambled to the Internet to pre-empt Rob Fulton's answer that won him the ultimate prize in a first for popular television show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. According to Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, visits to Television - Fansites websites surged by 12.6% on the night of the show, October 17, as host, Eddie McGuire asked, which of four popular '60s TV shows premiered first.
As Fulton reasoned his choice between Bewitched, Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes and I Dream of Jeannie, web users made their bets. Hitwise Search Intelligence reveals that guesses indicated by volume of searches, in order were, 'bewitched', 'get smart', 'i dream of jeannie' then 'hogans heroes'. There were over 2,100 unique search terms that referenced the premiere of each show. The following day, October 18, users queried the purchase of DVDs, with terms including 'hogans heroes buy dvd' and 'get smart dvd'.
The Bewitched and Elizabeth Montgomery website (www.bewitched.net) rocketed in the Hitwise rankings to become the most popular Entertainment - Personalities website. The unofficial website of Get Smart, Would You Believe (www.wouldyoubelieve.com) attracted more visits to its website on the night of the quiz show than when lead actor, Don Adams died on September 26, 2005.
This begs the question - how ubiquitous is search engine use during quiz shows? A recent contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire commented he would have to call a friend to see if they could "Google it". Earlier in February this year there was a massive spike on searches to 'supremes first hit' as celebrity contender, Shane Warne missed out on the correct answer, which anyone using the Internet could have told him was, Where Did Our Love Go.
Fast Mover - Spring Racing Carnival
www.springracingcarnival.com
Position week ending September 24: 5,766
Position week ending October 8: 2,707
Positions jumped: 3,059
With the Victorian Spring Racing Carnival getting underway for 2005 on 28 September, the Spring Racing Carnival website produced by Racing Victoria (www.racingvictoria.net.au) is racing through the field and compared to Australian websites in All Categories passed 3,059 sites between September 24 and October 8. The site is odds-on to continue to rise through the field as the Spring Racing Carnival builds to its feature event, the Emirates Melbourne Cup, to be held on Tuesday 1 November 2005 at Flemington.
The Spring Racing Carnival website has risen 214 places to 255 in the Sports category; 7 places to 26 in the Sports - Horse racing category; 222 places to 211 in the Lifestyle category; and 273 places to 386 in the Entertainment category.
Downstream traffic reinforced the fact that the Spring Racing Carnival is not only a horse racing carnival, but also a social and society event. Five of the top 20 sites visited after the Spring Racing Carnival site for the month of September had a fashion focus including the sites of fashion designer Collette Dinnigan (www.collettedinnigan.com) based in Victoria; fashion designer Leona Edminston (www.leonaedmiston.com) based in Sydney; and Sydney department store, The Strand Arcade (www.strandarcade.com.au). Top 20 upstream traffic also included two women's magazines: Vogue Australia (www.vogue.com.au) and Femail.com.au (www.femail.com.au).
The most popular terms typed into a search engine over the 12 weeks ending October 8 that resulted in traffic to the Spring Racing Carnival website were 'spring racing carnival' representing 23.55%; 'spring carnival' with 5.79%, and 'spring racing' with 4.63%. Just outside the search terms trifecta, at number four was 'melbourne spring carnival' with 1.93% of all search terms that delivered users to the Spring Racing Carnival website.
Category Spotlight: Health and Medical - Information
General information on health and wellness and healthy lifestyle, including online medical help and advice, self-diagnosis and general layperson medical reference. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 15/10/2005 » Ranks by 'Visits'.
Hitwise Benefits - Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate programs are arrangements in which an online merchant website pays affiliate websites a commission to send them traffic. While it is a great way to generate leads, it is crucial to understand which affiliates can potentially send the most consistent and qualified customers to your website.
Because we measure the online behaviour of millions of Internet users every day, only Hitwise can help marketers identify new affiliate partners, evaluate each partner's strengths and weaknesses and report on the results of these online relationships.
For example, if a bank wanted to identify potential affiliate partners and understand how other banks used affiliate marketing to drive traffic, here are some of the insights they could uncover with Hitwise.
- Which potential affiliate partners send visitors to both my website and competitors?
- Which websites send traffic to my competitor and do not send traffic to my website?
- What is the quality of traffic from a potential affiliate partner - is it constant or intermittent?
- Which websites in the online real estate industry have the same audience profile as the profile of my customers who are most likely to apply for a home loan?
- How have my affiliate relationships performed over time?
- How have my competitors' affiliate relationships performed over time?
Media queries at Hitwise
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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, October 2005
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Hitwise Australia Newsletter - October 2005
Real-time competitive intelligence
