MEN MAY BE HESITANT TO ASK FOR DRIVING DIRECTIONS,
BUT ONLINE IT'S AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT STORY
Google Maps Rises Quickly to Third In The Hitwise Maps Category Ranking
"mapquest" The Second Most Popular Search Term
NEW YORK, July. 28, 2005— Women don't hesitate to stop and ask for driving directions while men are reluctant, the adage goes. While that may be true, a paradoxical phenomenon occurs online: men appear to have absolutely no problem seeking directions from an Internet mapping service.
According to Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, nearly half (49.1 percent) of visitors to mapping Web sites were male for the four-week period ending July 16, 2005. MSN TerraServer and Google Maps were the major map sites most preferred by men, comprising 65 percent and 55 percent of visitors, respectively.
"Researching directions on the Web before a drive is a different context than asking for directions once you're on the road and lost," said Bill Tancer, General Manager, Worldwide Research, Hitwise. "However, the equal propensity of men to use Internet mapping services represents not only an important demographic attribute for marketers and mapping services, but insight into the potential demand and adoption for mapping and driving direction services".
Google Maps Rises Quickly to Third In The Hitwise Maps Category Rankings
Yahoo! Maps (maps.yahoo.com) and America Online's MapQuest (www.mapquest.com) have long dominated the online mapping category, with a combined category market share of 74.4 percent for the week ending July 23, 2005. However, Google Maps (maps.google.com), with its unique features and simple interface, has become the third most popular map site since its launch in early 2005, and now claims 9.5 percent of visits to the category.
A reduction in Google's downstream traffic to competitive mapping sites suggests the service is delivering more relevant information and successful results to map seekers. By the week ending July 23, 2005, only 11.3 percent of Google Maps visitors departed directly for another map site, down from 17.6 percent in April 2005. That still compares unfavorably to the entire mapping category, for which 5.8 percent of visitors depart directly to a competing map site.
"mapquest" The Second Most Popular Internet Search Term
For the week ending July 23, 2005, 57 percent of visits to sites in the Hitwise Travel - Maps category originated at a portal site or a search engine. The term "mapquest" was the second most popular term (behind "ebay") entered into all major Internet search engines for the four weeks ending July 23, 2005. The term "maps" was number five and "driving directions" was number 18. Reflecting this popularity, both Yahoo! Maps and MapQuest ranked among the Top 50 most-visited Internet domains for the week ending July 23, 2005.
Visits to online map sites peak in the summer months, coinciding with summer vacations. The market share of visits to map sites increased 35 percent in June 2004 versus December 2004. A category with a similar seasonal pattern is Travel - Destinations & Accommodation, which increased 95 percent in the same time period. Sites in this category include motels, amusement parks, and National Parks, which vacationers typically reach by car.
Top 10 Travel - Maps Sites by Market Share of Category
Week Ending July 23, 2005
Contact: For media inquiries or to schedule an analyst interview, please contact Lizzie Babarczy: press@hitwise.com (212) 380 2910.
About Hitwise:
Hitwise is the world's leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.
By monitoring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites. Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as search marketing, affiliate programs, online advertising, visitor segmentation, content development and lead generation.
Hitwise collects Internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in mega panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.
More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com
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