HITWISE UK SEARCH UPDATE

Yahoo! and Google News Search Engines Differ Dramatically in Consumer Usage

London, 13^th October 2005
There has been increasing talk and speculation about the future of search. One manifestation of the current battle is vertical search, through which search engines are attempting to deliver even more targeted and relevant results to internet users. Hitwise, the leader in online competitive intelligence, today reports that Yahoo! UK & Ireland News and Google News UK differ dramatically in the ways that consumers use these news search engines.

Visitors to Yahoo! UK & Ireland News Keep it in the Family

Yahoo! UK & Ireland News is the most popular News Search site, capturing 30% of visits to News Search sites in September. Combined with the .com property, this number climbs to 41%. Google News UK is the second largest News Search site. Combining the UK and .com properties, Google News captures 33% of the News Search market.

Analysis of Hitwise clickstream data reveals that Yahoo! UK & Ireland News visitors are much more likely to remain within the site’s own parent network than are users of Google News UK. 56% of Yahoo! UK & Ireland News visits continued to a site in the parent network.

“Consumers interact with Yahoo! News as part of the portal” said Heather Hopkins, Director of Research for Hitwise UK. “This is very different from how they interact with the next largest news site, Google News UK, where users are much more apt to continue their journey to a news website. Three times the share of visits from Yahoo! News stay in the Yahoo! parent network compared with Google News.”

Visitors to Google News UKprefer Print Media websites

Users of Google News UK show a preference for websites in the Hitwise News & Media category, with 48% of users going to a site in that category. Print Media sites were the most visited, receiving 60.47% of visits to News & Media sites. The Print Media sites that received the largest volume of visits from Google News UK in September were the Times Online, the Telegraph, and Guardian Unlimited.

Events Drive Traffic to News Vertical Search Engines

With many high-profile news events in the past twelve months, news search has been a staple source for news updates. There were seven News Search Engines among the 100 most visited websites in the Hitwise News & Media websites in September. Yahoo! UK & Ireland News and Google News UK were among the top ten News and Media websites.

“Visits to News Search sites are event driven” said Hopkins. “In the past twelve months, the biggest spikes in traffic were in July, the week of the London terror bombings, and in early January, the week of the Indian Ocean Earthquake. The desire for real-time updates is greater during catastrophes, making the internet an excellent source for information.”

To request a copy of our forthcoming search report, please visit: http://www.hitwise.co.uk/info/contact/uk_online_search_report.html

Monthly Share of Visits to News Vertical Search Custom Category

News Vertical Search Custom Category Rankings Based on Market Share of UK Visits, September 2005

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise measures how more than 25 million internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.

By measuring 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 affiliate programs, search marketing, online advertising, content development and lead generation.

Hitwise collects internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in 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.co.uk

For up to date analysis on online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence-Analyst Weblogs at weblogs.hitwise.com.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Jannie Cahill
jannie.cahill@hitwise.com

Tel: 020 7378 3619