| Hitwise Unveils Top Sites for 2006 |
The Hitwise UK Online Performance Awards celebrate the most successful UK websites in 50 key selected industries, based on the market share of visits a website has received throughout 2006. The Awards also include the most searched-for brands online, based on the volume of searches.
For a complete list of winners, please visit the Hitwise United Kingdom Award Winners page.
Hitwise would like to congratulate these businesses on their success, and for being the most popular websites in their respective categories for 2006.
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| Disneyland Paris Most Popular Easter Break Destination |
As UK consumers prepared for the Easter break, Hitwise UK Search IntelligenceTM reveals that Disneyland Paris and Lanzarote were both popular as short-haul Easter destinations.
The most searched-for overseas destination for the week ending 17th March was "disneyland paris", with searches increasing 45% from the same period last year to place it in the number one position. Tenerife, Cyprus, New York, France and Amsterdam are still among the hot spots for Brits abroad; however, this Easter we saw a new arrival with searches for "cheap flights to lanzarote" doubling year-on-year, making it the tenth most popular overseas destination for Easter.
"alton towers" is the most searched-for destination for Britons looking to stay closer to home during Easter, ahead of similar day attractions such as "thorpe park" and "legoland", which ranked third and fifth respectively in the Top 20 British destination searches for the week ending 17th March 2007.
Interest still remains high with perennial favourites "centerparcs" and "butlins", with five of the top 20 search terms dedicated to different spellings of the word Centerparcs. However, searches for "blackpool pleasure beach" increased 15% year-on-year and searches for "isle of wight" were up 17%, placing it for the first time amongst the top British Easter destinations.
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| Search Term Analysis |
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| 1. |
disneyland paris |
| 2. |
cheap flights to tenerife |
| 3. |
flights to tenerife |
| 4. |
flights to cyprus |
| 5. |
cheap flights to malaga |
| 6. |
amsterdam |
| 7. |
ferries to france |
| 8. |
new york hotels |
| 9. |
carhire cyprus |
| 10. |
cheap flights to lanzarote |
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| 1. |
alton towers |
| 2. |
butlins |
| 3. |
thorpe park |
| 4. |
centre parcs |
| 5. |
legoland |
| 6. |
centre parks |
| 7. |
center parcs |
| 8. |
longleat |
| 9. |
centerparcs |
| 10. |
blackpool pleasure beach |
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| Red Nose Day - www.walkears.com |
Position for week ending 3rd February: 5,421
Position for week ending 10th March: 529
Positions jumped: 4,892
To coincide with Red Nose Day, dubbed "The Big One", the Walkers Crisps walkEARS website (www.walkears.com) and the official Comic Relief - Red Nose Day website (www.rednoseday.com) both saw their market share of UK Internet visits soar. Visits to the Red Nose Day website increased 3-fold in the four weeks leading up to Red Nose Day and the walkEARS website's visits were up 6-fold.
The share of UK Internet searches for "red nose day" were up nearly 3-fold in the four weeks before the charity event, with the share of UK internet searches for "walkears" rising 7-fold, though they still trailed those for "red nose day" by 63%.
Bebo was the #3 source of upstream UK visits to Walkears in the week before Red Nose Day, accounting for 7.42% of the site's visits. On the Bebo home page, a featured sponsored link promoted a "Big Bebo Takeover" contest challenging Beboers to design a Red Nose Day themed home page. This is a great example of harnessing the creativity and energy of an online community, with recognition within the community as the reward.
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| PlayStation 3 Most Searched-for Console |
With the UK release of the latest gaming console launching Friday 23rd March, UK consumers turned to the Internet in search of deals on the PlayStation 3. For the week ending 18th March, the PlayStation 3 became the most searched-for gaming console, overtaking the Nintendo Wii. However, Hitwise data reveals that online enthusiasm for the PlayStation 3 was muted in comparison with other recent console launches.
Analysis of terms used to search for the console reveals that consumers are on the hunt for cheap consoles and are even comparing prices to overseas markets. The console has come under fire because of its £425 price tag - around £120 more than its US retail price - with Sony reportedly hinting that it may reduce prices by year-end.
Among search terms that included the keywords "playstation 3", "cheap playstation 3" was the #4 query based on volume of searches for the week ending 24th March; among searches that included the keyword "ps3", "cheap ps3" ranked at #7. UK consumers looked to compare prices with other markets, with the queries "ps3 price in dubai" and "60g ps3 price in north america" ranking #2 and #4 respectively among search terms that included the keywords "ps3 price".
Car Tax Strikes Nerve - UK Consumer Reaction to Budget 2007
Of all of the policy provisions in this year's Budget, car tax was the policy that drove most consumers to seek out more information.
The Hitwise Search Term Suggestion report shows there were 716 keywords that UK consumers typed into search engines for the week ending 24th March that included the keywords "budget 2007". Three of the top 20 search terms that included the keywords "budget 2007" related to car tax.
Of over 4,000 terms containing the word "tax" typed into a search engine over the last four weeks, "car tax" was the largest search term ahead of "road tax" and "tax credits".
To give this some context - for the week ending 24th March, the share of all UK internet searches for "budget 2007" exceeded the share of searches for "paris hilton" by a factor of 6 and the share of searches for "car tax" exceeded the share of searches for "paris hilton" by a factor of 2.
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| Shopping and Classifieds - Appliances and Electronics |
This category includes sites that sell various appliances and consumer electronic products, such as whitegoods, audio appliances, TV and video, and communication products. It incorporates both online and offline vendors. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 24/03/2007 » Ranks by 'Visits'.
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| 91.0% |
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of traffic to this category was directed at domestic sites.
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| 1. |
Computers and Internet |
50.97% |
| 2. |
Search Engines |
38.00% |
| 3. |
Shopping and Classifieds |
31.66% |
| 4. |
Appliances and Electronics |
10.64% |
| 5. |
Rewards and Directories |
9.69% |
| 6. |
Business and Finance |
8.60% |
| 7. |
Entertainment |
5.12% |
| 8. |
Telecommunications |
4.73% |
| 9. |
Computers |
3.10% |
| 10. |
Department Stores |
3.07% |
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| 1. |
Shopping and Classifieds |
46.95% |
| 2. |
Computers and Internet |
22.22% |
| 3. |
Appliances and Electronics |
19.26% |
| 4. |
Business and Finance |
13.26% |
| 5. |
Search Engines |
10.01% |
| 6. |
Entertainment |
7.65% |
| 7. |
Rewards and Directories |
7.12% |
| 8. |
Telecommunications |
6.31% |
| 9. |
Computers |
5.28% |
| 10. |
Department Stores |
5.23% |
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