The latest UK Online Search Insight Report provides details on the share of the search market held by each of the leading engines, the ways that UK consumers interact with search engines, the growth of vertical search and the major players in key verticals, as well as the degree to which search terms continue to be under-utilised.

To request your complimentary copy of the UK Online Search Insight Report, click here (offer valid until 15th November 2005).

Some key insights from the report include:

• The four leading search engines powered 81% of UK Internet searches in the four weeks ending 1st October 2005. When the UK and .com properties of Google, MSN Search, Yahoo! Search and Ask are combined, that number climbs to 94%.

• Google UK (www.google.co.uk) continues to dominate the search engine market in the UK, powering 63% of all Internet searches in the four weeks ending 1st October 2005. Collectively Google UK and Google.com powered 70% of UK Internet searches.

• Share of visits to the News Vertical Search category has remained steady over the past year, with an exception in July at the time of the London terror bombings and in early January following the Tsunami.

• Market share of visits to Image Search Engines increased 12% year-on-year in September. The leading search engines dominate Image Search, with Google UK Images claiming 85% of visits to Image Vertical Search sites.

• Share of visits to the Local Vertical Search category have declined slightly, by 5% year-on-year in September. Yell.com has been the #1 ranked Local Vertical Search site for the past 15 months, capturing 61% of the market share of visits to Local Vertical Search sites in September.

• Analysis of the most visited sites among Google UK, Yahoo! UK & Ireland and MSN UK reveals unique market strengths of each: Google UK (www.google.co.uk) is primarily used for search, Yahoo! (uk.yahoo.com) is primarily used for its portal and email, and MSN (www.msn.co.uk) is primarily used for communications through email, chat and groups.

• Shopping & Classifieds sites receive the most downstream visits from all the major search engines. Ask Jeeves UK (uk.ask.com) has the highest percentage of downstream visits to Shopping & Classifieds sites, sending 16% of its visits to websites in the Hitwise Shopping & Classifieds category in September.

• A comparison of the search terms that consumers entered into search engines that resulted in a visit to one of the five most visited travel agencies reveals that only 9% of these terms overlap. This highlights the tremendous opportunities to acquire customers through search.

Fast Mover - Angel’s Fancy Dress

www.fancydress.com


Position week ending September 10: #116
Position week ending October 8: #36
Positions jumped: 80

With Halloween approaching, UK Internet users have been trawling the web for the perfect fancy dress costume, resulting in a massive leap in traffic for several costume hire websites.

The biggest and most popular of these sites is Angel's Fancy Dress (www.fancydress.com). The famous West End costume hire company has soared in the Hitwise Shopping & Classifieds - Apparel & Accessories category in recent weeks: from the week ending September 10 to the week ending October 8, the site has leapt from #116 to #36, an increase of more than 200% in the space of one month.

Other popular costume hire websites that have leapt up the rankings recently include AbFab (www.abfab.co.uk), BuyCostumes.com (www.buycostumes.com) and Wonderland Party (www.wonderlandparty.co.uk).

In addition, the term 'fancy dress' is currently the most searched-for generic product amongst all search terms driving traffic to the Hitwise Apparel & Accessories category, and the 15th most searched-for term for the sector overall.

News In Brief

Earthquake prompts response in traffic to the DEC

Since launching its Asia Quake Appeal on Monday 10th October, visits to the website of the Disasters Emergency Committee - an organisation which covers the UK's leading aid agencies - have increased dramatically as Britons rushed online to offer their support. Thousands of British families have been affected by the disaster in the worst-hit areas of northern Pakistan and Kashmir. The DEC was the most visited Humanitarian website in the UK in the days following the disaster, and at its peak accounted for over 23% of visits to the Humanitarian category.

However, Hitwise data reveal that traffic to www.dec.org.uk is nowhere near the levels experienced at the height of the Tsunami tragedy, when visits to the DEC website accounted for over 50% of traffic to Humanitarian websites and the charity raised over £300m - nor for its Niger Crisis Appeal in August, when the DEC received 38% of visits to Humanitarian websites. This mirrors concerns from charities that the British public may well be suffering "compassion fatigue" and that willingness to donate to emergency relief funds is now dwindling.

Wallace & Gromit tops US box office and soars in Hitwise charts

Aardman Animations may have been mourning the loss of most of its history when its warehouse went up in flames this month, but the phenomenal response to the release of its latest film offering, 'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' must be some consolation.

This first feature-length Wallace & Gromit film has not only topped the US box office by taking $16.1m in its first weekend, but has officially become the most popular movie worldwide.

The official website of the film, www.wandg.com, has proved a similar success story online: the site has leapt 242 places in the Hitwise Entertainment - Movies category over the past month, jumping from #315 for the week ending September 10 to #73 for the week ending October 8.

In addition, fans are snapping up the range of merchandise associated with the film: the official Wallace & Gromit online shop (shop.wandg.com) is the top downstream site from Wallace & Gromit's homepage, with 13.45% of downstream visits for the week ending October 8.

World Cup qualification sees spike in searches for tickets

England's victory against Austria saw a resurgence in fans looking for information on how to get tickets to the World Cup in Berlin next summer.

Following England's defeat against Northern Ireland last month, searches for 'world cup 2006 tickets' fell considerably.

However, with England confirming their place in Berlin, the hunt on how to get hold of tickets began again in earnest - with online searches increasing more than three-fold between 8th and 15th October.

Category Spotlight: Music

The Music category features all sites that are primarily concerned with music. Record companies, music download sites, music stores, band sites, fan sites and information about the playing of instruments are examples of such sites. The data below is based on Weekly rankings for the week ending 15/10/2005 » Ranks by 'Visits'.

Local Competitiveness Index 37.6% of traffic to this category was directed at domestic sites.

Traffic Distribution The chart above illustrates the distribution of this category's traffic for the week among sites in various rank ranges.

Top 10 Upstream Categories 1. Computers and Internet 59.9% 2. Computers and Internet - Search Engines and Directories 40.5% 3. Music 12.0% 4. Entertainment 11.1% 5. Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat 7.3% 6. Shopping and Classifieds 6.8% 7. Computers and Internet - Software 3.9% 8. Music - Bands and Artists 3.2% 9. News and Media 3.1% 10. Computers and Internet - Email Services 2.9%

Top 10 Downstream Categories 1. Computers and Internet 29.2% 2. Entertainment 18.8% 3. Music 16.2% 4. Shopping and Classifieds 14.9% 5. Computers and Internet - Search Engines and Directories 8.1% 6. Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat 6.6% 7. Computers and Internet - Software 6.0% 8. Shopping and Classifieds - Music 4.5% 9. Entertainment - Multimedia 4.4% 10. Business and Finance 4.0%

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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, October 2005