Vol. 02
September - October 2006
Newsletter
By Jason Lee Miller
Friday September 1, 2006
You expect to see Google at the top the of list in pretty much any
search breakdown, followed distantly behind by Yahoo!. But would
you, in any category, expect MSN to be outdone by MySpace? Online
shopping just got a lot more social.
Hitwise reports that Google was the top US search engine driving
traffic to the Shopping and Classifieds category of websites for the
week ending August 26. Yahoo! sends waves of traffic that way to
the tune of 4.69 percent.
Though Hitwise puts MSN in third with 2.33 percent, it's only because
of the name of the category. The list was for search engines, not social
networking sites. MySpace directed more traffic to the likes of eBay,
Amazon and Craigslist than MSN, accounting for 2.53 percent of all US
upstream visits.
"Holy smokes" should be the phrase bounding in your head.
"Search is a proven method of acquiring traffic and Google is the
leader in driving online retail site traffic," said Bill Tancer, general
manager of Global Research at Hitwise.
"With the growth of MySpace and others, online retailers should
expand their focus beyond search to consider social networking sites
as a source of additional traffic."
Harnessing the potential of MySpace has hitherto been touch and go.
Traditional advertisers have balked at the lack of control that exists
within the social networks. But perhaps more of a barrier has been
uncertainty about how to use this new real estate effectively. It's
difficult to the course if you've never been there before.
You remember the first day of a new school, walking in amongst a
group of strangers for good or ill, and putting yourself out there for
acceptance or ridicule? It's like that.
So what we look to then are those that aren't wasting any time and
seeing how they fare in the social networking space. Nanette Marcus
over at iMedia, put together an examination of five brands that are
effectively using MySpace to form a relationship with a new buying
public.
Jack In The Box, Nike, Honda, Cingular, and Aquafina get the prize in
Marcus' estimation. Wallmart…not so good.
The Hitwise report also revealed the top searched brands, generic
terms and products driving searchers to shopping sites for the month
of August.
The top brands
eBay, Craigslist, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Amazon, Home Depot,
and Sears.
The top products
Barbie, iPod, Heelys, Crocs, Bratz, Lego, Webkinz, Bowflex, Proactive,
Air Force Ones.
About the Author:
Jason is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and
business.
