FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Matt Tatham - Hitwise - 1.212.380.2939

NEW YORK, NY - November 6, 2006 - Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, reports that Search Engines continue to be the predominant source for visits to the Lifestyle - Politics category, sending 28.17 percent for the week ending November 4, 2006. Among the websites within the Computers and Internet - Search Engines category, Google sent 18.74 percent of visits to the Politics category followed by Yahoo! Search with 4.73 percent and then Ask.com with 1.48 percent of visits for the week ending November 4, 2006.

Following the Search Engines category were websites within the Lifestyle - Politics category, responsible for 12.86 percent of visits last week, indicating that users are visiting more than one political website in a session. The Computers and Internet - Email Services category was next, responsible for 6.78 percent of visits and then the Lifestyle - Blogs and Personal Websites category with 5.48 percent. The News and Media - Print category rounded out the top five categories responding for 4.26 percent of visits to the Politics category for last week. The Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat category, which features many social networking websites, was responsible for 3.23 percent of visits to the Political category.

Top Categories Sending Traffic to Political Category Week Ending 11/04/2006
Industry	Upstream Share
Computers and Internet - Search Engines	28.17%
Lifestyle - Politics	12.86%
Computers and Internet - Email Services	6.78%
Lifestyle - Blogs and Personal Websites	5.48%
News and Media - Print	4.26%
Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat	3.23%
Entertainment - Television	3.23%
News and Media - Broadcast Media	2.85%
Computers and Internet - Portal Frontpages	2.82%
Entertainment - Radio	1.74%
Data based on Market Share of Visits for the week ending 11/4/06 from a sample of 10 million US Internet users
Source: Hitwise

YouTube and US Mid-Term Elections

A nascent source of traffic for the Politics category this election has been consumer generated media in the form of visits from YouTube. While accounting for a small percentage of traffic to the Politics category, YouTube generated 63 percent more US visits to Politics websites last week compared to the week ending October 7, 2006.

"This data shows how consumer generated media is growing in significance to several aspects of Internet use, from photo sharing and communication and now to political websites in advance of the mid-term elections," said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise. "As we look to the future, consumer generated media and the participatory nature of sites like YouTube will be along side search and email as important marketing vehicles when it comes to political campaigns."

Hitwise analysis reveals that as YouTube's share of US internet visits have grown, the percentage of its own traffic that it sends to websites in the politics category has also increased. The below chart shows YouTube's share of US internet visits on the left axis in orange compared with the percentage of downstream visits from YouTube to Politics websites on the right axis in grey.

For more on this topic please visit: http://weblogs.hitwise.com/heather-hopkins/2006/11/youtube_the_us_midterm_electio.html

Top Political Websites from 2004 Elections Re-Emerge in 2006

Interactive maps abound on the web, but one in particular seems to be a favorite of political watchers. Electoral-vote.com was the number two ranked website in the Hitwise Lifestyle - Politics category for the week ending October 30, 2004, and has re-emerged at number nine for the week ending November 4, 2006. Visits to the site have been steadily increasing as poll results are updated on the site.

Another favorite site of the 2006 elections that has been going strong this campaign season is JibJab.com which ranked as the number 16 website in the Lifestyle - Politics category for the week ending November 4, 2006. During the 2004 presidential election, it was the number six Politics website (week ending October 30, 2004), when the flash video "This Land" spread virally over the web.

For more on this topic please visit: http://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2006/11/top_political_websites.html

For even more Hitwise research analysis on the Politics category please visit: http://weblogs.hitwise.com/bill-tancer/2006/11/midterm_visits_to_politics_cat.html

About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,200 global clients with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.

Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise's patented methodology captures the anonymous online usage, search, and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into our easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement, and report on a range of online marketing programs.

Hitwise is a privately held company headquartered in New York City and operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.

For up to date analysis of online trends and statistics, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence Analyst Weblogs at weblogs.hitwise.com and the Hitwise Data Center at www.hitwise.com/datacenter.

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