Hitwise To Go - UK

Searches for 'gladiators' surge as the 90’s show returns to our screens

2008-05-16T10:20:31Z

Recent research from Hitwise UK revealed searches for Sky One’s revival of ‘Gladiators’ have increased by 445% since the beginning of April. A fan site dedicated to the show captured over half of all searches for ‘gladiators' over the four weeks ending 10th May. Visits to Gladiators’ official website peaked on Friday 9th May, as fans clamoured for information prior to the show’s premiere on Sunday 11th May.

Visits to Glasgow Rangers FC and searches for ‘flights to manchester’ spurred on by UEFA Cup final

2008-05-14T15:30:00Z

According to Hitwise UK, visits to Glasgow Rangers Football Club’s official website have increased by 26% over the past two weeks. The site reached its highest ever weekly position of #7 in the Sports-Football category as expectation grows for tonight’s UEFA Cup final in Manchester. Since Rangers won their semi-final, searches for ‘flights to manchester’ have reached their highest point this year. On May 1st, bmibaby.com, one of the carriers servicing the Glasgow – Manchester route, experienced its highest single day share of visits since the Christmas period.

Sunny weather raises interest in camping

2008-05-12T16:14:26Z

Recent research from Hitwise UK shows that searches for 'camping' and 'camping sites' increased by 70% and 75% respectively last week, as sunny weather played out across the UK. A quarter of visits from searches for 'camping' visited ukcampsite.co.uk, an online guide to camping and caravanning, resulting in the website entering the top 10 Destination & Accommodation websites for the first time. The remaining top five websites visited were camping equipment stores.

Visits to freesat.co.uk increase eleven-fold during launch

2008-05-08T11:29:00Z

Recent research from Hitwise UK shows searches for 'freesat' increased by 21% last week, prior to the launch of the BBC and ITV free satellite TV offering. Visits to freesat.co.uk increased eleven-fold on Tuesday as the service was launched. Searches for 'freesat bbc' and 'freesat from sky' also increased last week.

Visits to MUFC overtake LFC

2008-04-30T17:14:00Z

According to Hitwise UK, daily Internet visits to the official website for Manchester United Football Club yesterday overtook visits to Liverpool Football Club, the UK's top ranking football club website, for only the second time this year. Searches for 'flights to moscow' were also at their highest ever peak during the week ending 19 April, as it became likely the final would feature two UK teams.

One in seven visits to online radio websites are to BBC Radio One

2008-04-28T15:12:00Z

Recent research from Hitwise UK shows that one in seven visits to online radio websites last week were to BBC Radio One. Searches for the station's annual music festival, 'radio 1 big weekend' were almost triple the number of searches in 2007, as registrations for tickets opened last week. Searches for 'maidstone kent', the venue for this year's festival, also spiked last week.

Searches for 'Gavin and Stacey' rocket since January

2008-04-24T11:30:00Z

Recent research from Hitwise UK revealed searches for BAFTA winning show 'Gavin and Stacey' have increased 17-fold since the beginning of the year. A fan site dedicated to the show captured just under half of all searches for 'gavin and stacey', over the four weeks ending 19th April. Top variations on searches for the British show are related to the cast, music, theme tune and quotes.

'10p tax' searches spike

2008-04-23T11:30:00Z

According to Hitwise UK, searches for '10p tax' spiked last week as the debate rages about the tax rate changes, which came into effect this month. Just over half of all searches for the term over the last four weeks resulted in a visit to BBC News, while the second most visited website over the same period was the Conservative Party homepage.

US Masters website reaches highest rank within Sports category

2008-04-16T12:00:00Z

According to Hitwise UK, UK Internet visits to the Official Masters Tournament website tripled last week compared to 2007, as the website reached its highest ever position of #17 in the Sports category. Visits to the website of Justin Rose also peaked last week, as the english golfer reached the top of the leaderboard on Thursday. The most searched for brands of golf clubs were 'ping golf clubs' and 'taylor made golf clubs', with the latter seeing the largest increase in searches last week.

Searches for 'mario kart wii' double

2008-04-14T09:54:09Z

According to Hitwise UK, searches for 'mario kart wii' increased by 134% last week, following the release of the racing game by Nintendo. GAME is the top retailer to receive traffic from searches for the term, over the four weeks ending 12 April. The remainder of the top five recipients are information websites such as Wikipedia, YouTube and GameTrailers.

Visits to The Grand National website double

2008-04-08T14:36:30Z

According to Hitwise UK, Internet visits to the Grand National website doubled in comparison to visits to the site in 2007. Searches for 'grand national' also increased this year and 70% of search traffic to the Grand National website was from this term. Visits to the Gambling - Sports Betting category also saw an increase during the Grand National weekend, up by 18% from April last year.

'Facebook' number one search term in the UK

2008-04-07T12:27:01Z

Recent research from Hitwise UK shows that ‘facebook’ has overtaken ‘bebo’ to become the most searched for term in the UK. Searches for 'facebook' have increased seven-fold over the last 12 months, while searches for 'bebo' (the previous number one term) have increased by 25% over the same period.

Fourth series of The Apprentice most popular yet

2008-04-02T16:33:00Z

According to Hitwise UK, Internet visits to the BBC website for the TV show, The Apprentice, were at their highest ever level for the opening week of the fourth series. Visits to the site were the same last week as the biggest week during the 2007 season. The most searched for Apprentice wannabee last week was 'nicholas de lacy-brown' followed by 'alex wotherspoon' and 'raef bjayou'.

'Flying Penguins' result in most ever visits to BBC iPlayer

2008-04-02T14:18:38Z

UK Internet visits to the BBC iPlayer website peaked to their highest ever daily level on the 1st of April, as viewers flocked to the site to watch an April Fool's Day joke about Flying Penguins. The video was first reported on The Telegraph website, and visits to iPlayer from The Telegraph increased four-fold compared with the previous day. People also encouraged others to view the mini-documentary, with visits from social networking websites and web-based email to the iPlayer website, increasing by 140% and 40% respectively yesterday.

Searches for 'boat race' up 12%

2008-03-31T08:47:39Z

Recent research from Hitwise UK shows that searches for 'boat race' for the week ending 29 March were up by 12% on last year, as the annual Oxford & Cambridge boat race took place on Saturday. The top website, capturing 75% of searches for 'boat race' was the official website www.theboatrace.org, with visits to the site up 16% on last year. Of visitors to the website, London was the most popular region, followed by the South-East - home of 2008 Boat Race winners Oxford University.