With searches for "bebo" ranking third among all UK internet searches for the four weeks ending 29th April 2006, MySpace - which was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation last year for $580 million - may struggle to hold on to its position as the UK's most popular social networking site.

Searches for "bebo" have spiked since January, rising to third position among all searches typed into search engines by UK internet users for the four weeks ending 29th April 2006, compared to searches for "myspace" in 24th position. This highlights growing interest in Bebo as well as the site's opportunity to oust MySpace as the leading social networking site in the UK - earlier this week, venture fund Benchmark Capital Europe announced it was investing $15 million in the social networking site.

Whilst MySpace still leads social networking sites in share of visits and enjoys a 18% larger share of visits than Bebo (the #2 ranked site in the category), Bebo is fast closing the gap. In the eight weeks to 29th April 2006, Bebo's share of visits to sites within the Hitwise Net Communities & Chat category rose 45%, compared to 28% for MySpace. Other indicators, such as share of UK page views, point to Bebo's growing strength in the social networking space. In the week ending 29th April, Bebo overtook MySpace in share of page views, rising to an 18.6% share of social networking site page views, compared to MySpace's 17.4% share.

If it is to maintain the top position, MySpace will need to continue to innovate to keep and grow its membership base, reported to exceed 70 million. The youthful audience these sites attract is highly fickle as comparing the top 100 Net Communities and Chat sites in 2005 and 2006 we have seen 29% of those sites churn.

The following report lists the most popular terms typed into a search engine over the 4 weeks ending 13/05/2006 that resulted in traffic to websites classified by Hitwise within the 'Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat' industry. For example, the most popular search term was 'bebo' representing 4.08% of all search terms that delivered users to websites classified by Hitwise in the 'Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat' industry.

More and more people over the age of 50 are turning to the web, and some of their most popular destinations are to travel websites. Travel is one of the most established e-commerce categories and has proven popular with silver surfers who are both cash and time rich.

Hitwise data reveals that Travel websites attracted one fifth more visits from the 55+ age group in the 4 weeks ending 29th April 2006 than average, with The Caravan Club, AirMiles UK, P&O Ferries, Monarch Airlines, and Holiday Autos - UK receiving the largest share of visits from this demographic.

However it is the Cruises category which really appeals to older, well-off segments of the UK online population. The Hitwise Cruises category attracted a larger share of internet visits from those aged 55+ than any other category during these 4 weeks, with more than one third of visitors to the category aged 55%.

Analysis of Experian's Mosaic profiles of visitors to Travel - Cruises sites reveals strengths with Mosaic Groups that are wealthy and are either empty nesters or whose children will soon be entering university. Travel - Cruises websites attract 49% more visits from the group Symbols of Success than average, a group described as "people with rewarding careers who live in sought after locations, affording luxuries and premium quality products".

Travel websites seeking to target this affluent audience should ensure their websites are well designed for researching holidays and destinations, as well as for booking. Also, by understanding a site's audience online, online marketers can more effectively target campaigns and promotions.


Housing Boom Reflected Online

Several reports have highlighted April's UK house price increase, including a report from Halifax which indicated that UK house prices in April were 8% higher than for the same time last year. This same increase is reflected online, with visits to property websites up 5% year-on-year in April 2006. This increase has been driven by the growing popularity of leading property sites Right Move and Primelocation, as well as the rising importance of private sale sites.

Visits to private sale sites Houseladder, Homes on Sale and HouseWeb outpaced overall growth in the online property segment, rising 74%, 62% and 62%, respectively, year-on-year in April and helping to push up visits to the overall online property segment. Whilst private sale sites have yet to achieve critical mass of visits, they are nevertheless achieving strong growth. The challenge for these sites continues to be attracting a critical mass of buyers to make listing properties more attractive.

Visits to Right Move saw its market share of UK internet visits increase 38% year-on-year in April, whilst Primelocation registered an even stronger growth in visits, up 61% in April. A rising share of visits to Right Move and Primelocation reflects the increased consolidation of visits to property sites among the top players. Together, the top 10 sites accounted for 44% of visits to property sites in April, up from 41% in the same month one year earlier. Right Move alone held a 20% share of visits to property sites in April.

Right Move's dominant position is also highlighted by the search terms driving traffic to property websites. The four most popular search terms in April were all variations on searches for the site's name, with searches for "rightmove" rising 104% in the four weeks ending 29th April 2006.

The Movies category features all sites that are primarily concerned with film and video movies, including sites that focus on particular movies or movie stars, or sites that provide reviews, news and Hollywood gossip, plus cinema websites and video stores. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 13/05/2006 » Ranks by 'Visits'.

Local Competitiveness Index 35.3% 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 56.6% 2. Computers and Internet - Search Engines 42.1% 3. Entertainment 20.2% 4. Entertainment - Movies 9.2% 5. Shopping and Classifieds 6.6% 6. Computers and Internet - Email Services 4.3% 7. News and Media 4.2% 8. Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat 3.8% 9. Lifestyle 3.6% 10. Entertainment - Television 3.3%	Top 10 Downstream Categories 1. Entertainment 32.0% 2. Computers and Internet 31.8% 3. Entertainment - Movies 15.9% 4. Computers and Internet - Search Engines 15.6% 5. Shopping and Classifieds 12.1% 6. News and Media 5.6% 7. Entertainment - Television 4.8% 8. Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat 4.7% 9. Computers and Internet - Software 3.8% 10. Lifestyle 3.5%