It is important to note that it has been widely rumored over the years that the Alexa rankings can be manipulated fairly easily. The Alexa Rankings, however, are different than the Alexa Hot URLs, which isn’t as easily manipulated and therefore I would assume is more accurate. The Alexa Hot URLs is a list of the hottest web pages on the internet right now according to the Alexa Toolbar; and the list is updated every five minutes.

There are several ways to use the Alexa Hot URLs list. From a website owner’s standpoint, getting one of your website’s URLs to show up on this list means that “you’ve made it”. It also means that your website’s search engine rankings are going to change (for the better) and your website is (or soon will be) getting better organic search engine rankings because your site traffic is up. And from a web surfer’s standpoint, it’s certainly an interesting place to start your web surfing: the list shows what’s hot right now, the websites that everyone’s visiting right now. Quite often it’s full of the latest top news stories, but it’s also filled with lots of other stuff: and that’s the whole point of me writing this.

I have watched the Alexa Top URLs for over a month and determined that the list can be broken into certain types of URLs. After categorizing them, I have analyzed each type to determine exactly how and why that type of web page appears on the list of Alexa Hot URLs and added comments on how you would get your site on the list if you own a similar website. These are not necessarily in any order of importance or any order of how often they appear.

The Mainstream Media News Article
If it’s major news, then it’s most likely going to be covered multiple times and all the major news websites are covering it. Quite often, there will be more than one article covering the same topic.
Examples – News.yahoo.com articles, CNN.com articles, local FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS news affiliate website articles
How often It Stays – As long as it’s news, people will still be interested in it. These don’t stay around for a while, a few hours at best. Longer if the article has gone popular or hot on a social bookmarking site like Digg.
How You Get There – If you’re a mainstream news site, putting the article on your site’s home page and promoting it on other sites will certainly help. Make sure the article is optimized with the proper title tag and include links to socialize the article like a link to Digg.com, Mixx.com, Propeller.com, Reddit.com, and Delicious.com. A link to StumbleUpon may help, as well. If it’s big news, getting picked up by Drudge will help. The news site should also be in Google News and in Yahoo News, which also helps.

The Mainstream Media Link Bait Article
Classic linkbait articles with nifty headlines still will pull in readers. Linkbait is not just for bloggers, the mainstream media has been using it for years and still use it. “How to” articles and “Things you didn’t know” type of articles still are highly read.
Examples – MSN and Yahoo! are notorious for these types of mainstream linkbait articles. Here’s one by MSN and
How often It Stays – Usually at least a day or so, it really depends on how long the main site wants is featuring it. If it’s an MSN.com article, then the traffic is usually from MSN and they’re pushing it. If it’s a subdomain of Yahoo!, like RealEstate.Yahoo.com, then the traffic is mainly from Yahoo.com.
How You Get There – The mainstream sites know how to get their article there: feature it on the home page. Certainly pushing it out through social media bookmarking sites will help, but mainly the traffic is already there and it’s just a matter of featuring it somewhere.

Sports News
We love our sports stars and Celebrity athletes. When a sports celebrity screws up, well, we all want to know about it.
Examples – Articles on ESPN.Go.com are typical.
How often It Stays – Not for long; like mainstream news articles, these come and go depending on how newsworthy it is.
How You Get There – Articles should be optimized with a good title tag and headline; getting on Drudge and featuring it on the home page of a major site like ESPN.Go.com or on other major portals like Yahoo will certainly help.

The Mainstream Blog
There are three mainstream blogs that seem to always have something on the Alexa Hot URLs list, at least once a day: TechCrunch, Mashable, and Huffington Post. Typically, it’s a rant by Michael Arrington or social media news or political commentary.
Examples – Mashable, TechCrunch, Huffington Post.
How often It Stays – Actually, longer that I would expect. It really depends, but usually it’s a few hours or longer. Some blog posts and whiny rants might even last a day on the Alexa Hot URLs list.
How You Get There – Twitter. Yes, if you can get people to re-tweet it then it will send a lot of traffic to the URL, and others will tell others about it and soforth. It gets around quickly. Retweeting and Socializing it on the main social bookmarking sites is primarily how it gets around.

The Get Rich Quick Online Marketing Scheme
They’re schemes, not scams. Technically speaking, these get-rich-quick-by-posting-links-on-Google type of schemes are technically not scams, they are selling information. Whatever they’re selling for $47, well, I just don’t want anything to do with it: and certainly it’s stuff like this that’s making the whole internet marketing/SEO/Search Engine Marketing industry look bad. It’s just another version of SEO Snake Oil, and it’s got to stop.
Examples – All you have to do is take a look at the Alexa Hot URls and you’ll see what I mean. If it’s got “internet marketing” or “PLR” or “traffic” or “instant” in the title then it’s not something that I recommend.
How often It Stays – Sometimes up to a few hours at best, then it’s replaced with another make-money scheme.
How You Get There – The more legitimate ways of getting there (if any of this is legit) is through a list. The more honorable marketers (if you can call them that) have huge email lists that they send out. They spend a lot of time building lists of thousands upon thousands of emails, and most of the emails offer something for free. Or they just do it via PPC. There are other tactics, though, that I would rather not reveal here.

The Unknown Blogger’s Blog Post
I’m only calling these bloggers “unknown” because they just haven’t hit the mainstream blogging list yet. They may actually be A-list bloggers but you don’t see their posts regularly on the Alexa Hot URLs. Don’t get me wrong, many of the Technorati Top 100 bloggers can still get traffic, but they just don’t know how to really get traffic anymore. Nowadays, it’s pretty rare that you see bloggers like this one make it to the Alexa Top URLs. You might be surprised, but even with even blogs like this one with over 530,000 readers, they only make it to the Alexa Hot URLs if they use it to announce something.
Examples – It’s great blog posts like this and this and this one that make it to the Alexa Hot URLs.
How often It Stays – Usually for a few hours at most. There have been the occasional product announcements by Google and some brilliant blog posts that have lasted for a while, but usually the blog post is on the Alexa Hot URLs for only a few hours.
How You Get There – If you’re a blogger that wants to get noticed, you need to set yourself so you can handle the traffic. Do your homework. Do some research or uncover something that everyone will care about. For once, be a journalist. Write great content. Write something useful. Insightful. You might want to start reading here and here about writing and promoting the perfect blog post. Network with the right people on Twitter and get it retweeted.

The Offer
We love to get a great deal online. We love to get free stuff. If you’re an online retailer, then offering deals like $29 airfare deals or something more incredible will bring the traffic. Use a “great deal” as a loss leader…and sign them up to your email list to make them future customers. Give away something for free, even with free shipping: get them on your opt-in list and make them a customer for life. The lifetime value of that customer is a lot more than your acqusition cost.
Examples – Woot.com is notorious for having great deals that hit the Alexa.com Hot URLs. But it also can be deals like these that will get people’s interest. Jack in the Box got it right with this offer. They even have added some social bookmarking links to the page so you can help publicize it.
How often It Stays – Not for long, but it really depends on the length of the offer. Some offers last a day and get publicized enough and tweeted and retweeted that it may just stick around for a few hours.
How You Get There – I’ve already mentioned it above, but if you sell stuff online you need to use the “loss leader” or “free stuff” type of promotion to acquire customers or build your list. Run a PPC campaign and a banner ad campaign to promote the offer. Send out press releases. Get listed on the “deal” websites. Run a Twitter social media marketing campaign.

The Update
There are many sites that have toolbars and Firefox add-ons that have lots and LOTS of subscribers and users. Issue an update and force all of your users to get that update and their web browser will take them to one particular URL. It’s that update URL that ends up on the list of Alexa Hot URLs.
Examples – here is a classic example. Force an update and give people a quick tour of what you just updated.
How often It Stays – Usually about a day or so. This typically has some pretty good staying power on the Alexa Hot URLs. Amazingly enough, they last quite a bit longer than other typical URLs. But it’s because they usually have a good following and a lot of users.
How You Get There – Build a Firefox add-on or a toolbar that everyone loves to use. Make it really useful for a lot of users. Then schedule regular updates and force them to upgrade or force an update. Don’t forget to upsell those users, though, once they are coming to your update page you can send them anywhere you want or even upsell them to a “paid” service.

The Error Page
If your site goes down and it’s a very popular site that everyone uses every day then put up an error page.
Examples – LinkedIn, for example, sometimes has issues for some reason and shows an error page. It may not be their fault, it might actually be someone who has tried to “game the system” so to speak and tried to get a lot of “friends” on the LinkedIn network. Whatever the case, if you’ve got enough errors on your site that it shows up on Alexa’s Hot URLs then you should think about doing something with the traffic.
How often It Stays – Not for long, hopefully. After all, it’s an error page, right?
How You Get There – Build a popular social network or a popular site and then let it go down. Or build a member site where people want to game your system for their benefit: turn off the offending account and show an error page. But why not do something useful with that traffic like upselling them or even linking over to another site while that error page is up?

The Image
People love images and crazy photos. Some images are actually short videos that have been converted into animated GIF files.
Examples – A great example is the Kid Owned By Mentos And Diet Coke one that is actually a Digg social bookmarking link. Often it will be a Digg.com link or a Flickr.com page like this that are just amazing photos that get popularized.
How often It Stays – Usually about half a day, depending on how many people like the photo.
How You Get There – Certainly you have to start with a great image. Something that people will like, obviously. It helps if you’re a popular user on Flickr.com and have a lot of friends. But it also can really help out if you are able to get a lot of people to Tweet it on Twitter, link to it from your popular blog, and maybe even use StumbleUpon to get traffic to it. Just like getting photos to show up in the organic search results on the search engines (like Google Images), you’ll need links to the file. If you can handle the bandwidth, then it’s also helpful if you allow people to hotlink to it. (Let the image show up on someone’s MySpace page but they haven’t imported it into MySpace, the image is pulled from your server every time it loads.)

The Social Bookmark
It’s actually not that often that social bookmarking websites like Digg.com have URLs that make it into the Alexa Hot URls. But they do from time to time, and if they do make it then it’s most likely a good one. It’s even more rare that Delicious.com, and Reddit.com have a URL that make the list. If you play the social bookmarking game, or just want a link to your website, then I suggest that you make it a habit of voting on and commenting on all of the social bookmarking URLs that make it into the Alexa Hot URLs. If nothing else, you’ll get some visitors and some crawls from the search engines.
Examples – Usually it’s something like this that makes it to the Alexa Hot URLs, something that appeals to ultra techy uber geeks that play video games. Or it’s just some simple pic. There seems to be a lot of images/pics lately that are showing up on the list. There’s also ones like this that deserve to be there.
How often It Stays – Usually for a few hours, actually…which is a bit surprising if you ask me. It comes and then it goes as quickly as it appeared on the list. You rarely see a social bookmark on the Alexa Hot URLs in the morning, it usually is in the afternoon.
How You Get There – You have to get your content to go hot or “popular” on Digg (which is a feat in and of itself) and then you need even more of a boost: like getting a bunch of retweets on Twitter, as well. It also helps if a “Digg this” button or Digg button also appears on the page that you’re promoting. Images and Pics tend to do well from time to time, as well. Consider using an alternative image host, though, like Flickr.com or even Imgur, as it will certainly suck a lot of bandwidth.

I have to say that as an online marketer I’ve been particular interested in seeing what are the most popular URLs, not just the most popular websites. We all know that Google, Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Wikipedia, and Twitter have lots of traffic. But what are the specific URLs that are getting the traffic? Are you surprised that while Google.com is one of the most popular websites on the internet, the Google home page does not appear on the Alexa Hot URls list that often at all? It’s really only when Google does something big like announce a new product or service that they even appear on the Alexa Hot URLs. What’s even more interesting, though, from my research, is that the “little guy” has a very good chance of getting the massive amount of traffic you will be getting when your URL appears on the Alexa Hot URLs. And to get to noticed on the Alexa Hot URLs, you’ll need to determine which “type” you fall into and play your cards right.

Related posts:

1. Where to Get Ideas for Website Content I colleague of mine recently wrote a great blog post...
2. KeywordSmash Free Keyword Research Tool Launched As a blogger, online marketer, writer, and a shameless...
3. Search Engine Optimization: Is Social Sharing the Next Link Building? I just finished reading an interesting TechCrunch article about how...

As a blogger, online marketer, writer, and a shameless self-promoter, I am always on the hunt for content and ideas for creating online content. I totally agree with whoever coined the phrase, “content is king”. I have to admit that sometimes I get writer’s block or, as I like to call it, “promoter’s block”. Whatever you call it, sometimes you just need a place to start, a place to enter a keyword phrase to get started. I finally found that place, called KeywordSmash!, a free keyword research tool that lets you search every major online keyword research and content source you could imagine. And yes, it’s completely free to use.

KeywordSmash is pretty simple to use. Enter a keyword phrase and it lets you choose a category, such as:
- Offers (sites where you can make money)
- Keywords (keyword research websites)
- Trends (what people are talking about)
- Demographics (Google Insights, Compete.com, Alexa data, etc.)
- Ads (pay per click ads)
- Social Media Sites (what people are talking about on the social media sites)
- News (Google news, Yahoo! news, etc.)
- Discussions (forums, message boards)
- Articles (article sites)
- Images (pretty pictures)
- Video (videos)
- Public Domain (Wikipedia content, US Gov content, Creative Commons)

After you pick a source (or several sources), click on the “search” button and it will automatically find content and related content for you from those sources. For example, I recently used the tool to search for the keyword phrase, “search engine optimization”:

I clicked on the “news” button for all of the latest news on search engine optimization. This way, I was able to quickly and easily find all the latest news articles on that topic. If I was writing a blog post or had a blog about search engine optimization, then I would probably mention what’s going on today in the search engine optimization industry.

Let’s take this a bit further, though. Let’s say that we really do have a search engine optimization blog and want to write about that topic. First, go to KeywordSmash! and enter the phrase. You might first click on the News tab and see what people are talking about. You might mention and link out to other news articles. That could be one blog post for your blog, perhaps even a daily blog post. Updating your blog on a regular basis will get readers and the search engines coming back every day for more content.

Next, let’s do some keyword research to find out about other topics that are related to search engine optimization that you could write about. Check the keyword research for the phrase “search engine optimization” and you’ll see what people are searching for. You might even write about one of those keyword phrases that you find, maybe write one article about each keyword phrase.

Trends are also very helpful for content ideas, on KeywordSmash you can search these all at once, with one keyword phrase and one click:
- Google Trends
- Google Insights
- Blogpulse
- Twitter “twist” (this is way cool, especially if you have a Twitter account like I do)
- SEOmoz
- Yahoo! Buzz
- AOL search
- eBay Research Labs

If you look for your keyword phrase, you’ll quickly see what people are really talking about this month, this week, and even today. Certainly if you’re a blogger then you will get plenty of ideas of what to write about (or blog about). Sure, you could go on over to Twitter and look at the “top trends” and write about something, but why not take it one step further and really do some research to see where the traffic is?

If you’re not actually selling something right now (you’re not an online business or you’re not writing for an online business) then you might want to use the “Offers” search at KeywordSmash!, which lets you search for offers from these companies:
- ClickBank
- Pay dot com
- Aff Spy
- Offer Vault
- Associate Programs
- Affiliate First
- Affiliate Scout
- Affiliate Seeking
- Amazon.com

You first have to sign up for these services and become an affiliate to get your affiliate code number or “affiliate ID”, but they’re generally free to sign up. The idea is that you write a blog post (or an article, or put a page on your site) about a keyword phrase or a topic and then you “mention” a related offer that your readers might be interested in. If they click on your link and visit the site and purchase something then you make money. Some bloggers write all day long and include “affiliate offers” in their blog posts, getting you to purchase something so they can make money from their blogs.

However you end up using KeywordSmash!, I’m sure that you’ll find it useful, just like I did. I have a few ways that I’m using it to help me in my daily marketing activities, and I’m sure if you try just one keyword search you’ll be hooked on it just like I am.

Related posts:

1. Search Engine Optimization: Encouraging Google to Display Real Time Web for Your Keyword Back in December 2009, Google began showing the integration of...
2. Search Engine Optimization Horror Story Contest Launched Do we really need another Search Engine Optimization (SEO)...
3. Study: Facebook Fan Pages are Great Marketing Tool for Businesses Companies that use Facebook and Facebook fan pages to market...

Paris Hilton fired back at John McCain in response to Presidential Candidate John McCain’s recent television ad. John McCain’s TV ad compared Senator Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Paris Hilton stayed atop the Lycos to(TM) Top Search Terms for the week ending August 2nd, 2008. Every week Lycos comes out with a list of the top 50 most popular search phrases for the previous week.

Here’s some video to watch about the Paris Hilton and John McCain:

And here’s another:

Because of the buzz around Presidential Candidate John McCain’s most television ad, Paris Hilton remains on top once again. John McCain’s tv ad also mentions Britney Spears, which is 10th on the list this week. Here’s the list for this week:

The Lycos 50 Top 10 Search Terms for the Week Ending Aug. 2, 2008:
1. Paris Hilton
2. Clay Aiken
3. YouTube
4. Danica Patrick
5. “The Dark Knight”
6. Angelina Jolie
7. Pamela Anderson
8. Christian Bale
9. Facebook
10. Britney Spears

Lycos also comes out every week with their “movers and shakers” list, a list of search phrases that jumped in popularity suddenly; previously the phrases did not have much search activity. Here’s the list for this week of the top mover and shakers and how much they jumped:

Biggest Movers and Shakers for Week Ending Aug. 2, 2008:
1. Manny Ramirez 700 %
2. California Earthquake 633 %
3. Randy Pausch 610 %
4. Ryan Seacrest 585 %
5. Heath Ledger 515 %
6. Jennifer Lopez 470 %
7. Christina Aguilera 400 %
8. Jonas Brothers 380 %
9. Teen Choice Awards 305 %
10. Mary Louise Parker 265 %

Former Red Sox player Manny Ramirez, Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, and “Weeds” Actress Mary Louise Parker were amongst the biggest gainers. search activity increased 610 percent for Carnegie Mellon University Professor Randy Pausch who lost his very dramatic battle to cancer on Aug. 1st. Randy Pausch became an inspiration to millions of people after a farewell speech he delivered at Carnegie Mellon University titled “The Last Lecture,” which resulted in a best-selling book. The video of Randy Pausch’s speech has been viewed on YouTube more than five million times, and The Last Lecture has been translated into 30 languages, with nearly 3 million copies of the book currently in print.

Lycos, Inc. operates search and technology web sites that foster online communities, including the new Lycos Cinema community, bringing people together one flick at a time. Other Lycos products and sites include Lycos.com, Hotbot.com, Tripod.com, Angelfire.com, Gamesville.com, Lycos Mail, Webon, WhoWhere.com and The Lycos 50(TM). Lycos, Inc. (http://www.lycos.com/) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daum Communications Corp., a leading Internet portal and e-commerce destination in Korea with a growing presence throughout the Asian markets. Lycos was acquired by Korean Daum Communications Corp. in October 2004 and has its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. Daum Communications Corp. is traded on the KOSDAQ: 035720, http://www.daum.net/.

Related posts:

1. Top Search Engine Optimization Firms for December 2009 Every month, Top SEOs comes out with a list of...
2. Luxury Car Brands Not Taking Full Advantage of Social Media Porsche had the highest community rating in the Community Index...
3. Courseopedia Search Engine Helps You Find Courses I’m always fascinated by the new niche search engines...

According to Lycos, the rumors of an affair between Alex Rodriguez and Madonna caused a huge surge in the number of searches for their names last week. Other searches that surged last week were searches for Grey’s Anatomy’s Katherine Heigl, Nicole Kidman, Jesse Jackson and the iPhone.

Lycos maintains The Lycos 50(TM), the 50 most popular Internet search results for the week, which is located at 50.lycos.com. If you’re so inclined to make comments, you can comment on their blog located here at their Lycos50 blog or on their new Under the Red Carpet Blog.

Let’s take a look at the list for last week, the week ending July 12, 2008. This is the list of the biggest “movers and shakers” for the week, the searches that suddenly had a surge. This means that previously there weren’t that many searches but all of a sudden there was a huge number of searches for the phrase as compared to their normal number of searches.

  Biggest Movers and Shakers for Week Ending July 12, 2008:
      1.  Alexander Rodriquez     533%
      2.  Madonna                 515%
      3.  Lindsay Lohan           480%
      4.  Katherine Heigl         425%
      5.  Nicole Kidman           400%
      6.  The Bachelorette        365%
      7.  Jesse Jackson           333%
      8.  iPhone                  270%
      9.  Brett Farve             200%
      10. Miss U.S.A.             140%

According to Lycos, there was a big surge in the number of searches for Alex Rodriguez and Madonna because they both have been in the news lately. “Amid swirling rumors of an affair and the breakup of their respective marriages, baseball star Alex Rodriguez (533 percent) and Madonna (515 percent) surged to the top of this week’s Lycos 50 “Movers and Shakers” list. Rodriguez, whose wife Cynthia has filed for divorce, and Madonna have both denied the affair, claiming to know each other only through their mutual manager.”

The “Grey’s Anatomy” star, Katherine Heigl, gained 425 percent on the “Movers & Shakers” list after speculation that her character, Dr. Isabel “Izzy” Stevens, will be killed off the show. Lycos says that “Last month Heigl withdrew her name from consideration of the Emmys, claiming her role wasn’t worth the nomination, leading Entertainment Weekly to report that rumors are flying that the show’s creators are angry with the actress and thinking of killing off her character.”

Lycos went on to say that “New mom Nicole Kidman gained 400 percent following the July 7 birth of her baby daughter Sunday Rose Kidman in Nashville, Tenn. Kidman was surrounded by her country music superstar husband, Keith Urban, and several family members; the couple was married in June 2006.

There was also an increase in searches for Angelina Jolie. “Speaking of new babies, Angelina Jolie climbed to No. 5 on the Lycos 50 for the week following the birth of her twins over the weekend. Jolie, 33, and Brad Pitt, 44, are the proud parents of newborn twins — son Knox Leon and daughter Vivienne Marcheline — who were born on Saturday night at a maternity clinic in Nice, France.”

Lycos also publishes the top 10 search terms for the week, which has Paris Hilton, YouTube, and Clay Aiken at the top.

The Lycos 50(TM) Top 10 Search Terms for the Week Ending July 12, 2008:
1. Paris Hilton
2. YOUTUBE
3. Clay Aiken
4. Pamela Anderson
5. Angelina Jolie
6. Tim McGraw
7. Entwistle Verdict
8. Facebook
9. Madonna
10. George Carlin

Related posts:

1. comScore Releases August 2009 Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) has released their monthly comScore...
2. comScore Says Google Leads Internet in Brazil and India comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) has recently released a study...
3. comScore Releases May 2009 Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), has released its monthly comScore...

According to comScore, the company that measures searches on the web, we searched seven million times for the Apple iPhone during the month of April, 2008. They also are reporting that Google delivered a disproportionate number of iPhone-related clicks.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) has released a study on “iPhone”-related keyword search phrases . The data is based on information from their comScore Marketer service. The data shows that that 1.3 million people conducted 6.9 million searches for iPhone-related terms in April 2008.

Typically, we have searched on sorts of Apple iPhone-related topics, but the most common keyword search phrase is strictly the keyword “iPhone”. That one keyword generated almost 1.5 million searches. According to comScore, other keyword search phrases ranking high on the list were several keyword phrases related to the upcoming “next generation” iPhone, which includes “iPhone update” (151,000), “iPhone 2.0″ (75,000) and “iPhone 3G” (60,000).

What I find interesting is that the phrase “iPhone Speakers” is showing up as a top keyword search phrase.

Buy now! DUAL IPOD/IPHONE DOCK SPEAKER SYSTEM $149.99 Industry’s First “Dual Play” System that can play and charge two iPods featuring Sound Turbo Multi-Color Illumination and AM/FM Tuner.

For those interested, here are the exact numbers that have been released:

  Top "iPhone"-Related Search Terms
  April 2008
  Total U.S. -- Home/Work/University Locations
  Source: comScore Marketer
  Search Term                 Searches (000)
  IPHONE                              1,488
  IPHONE UPDATE                         151
  IPHONE WEB APPS                       118
  IPHONE MMS                            101
  IPHONE 2.0                             75
  IPHONE 3G                              60
  IPHONE 2                               59
  IPHONE G3                              43
  IPHONES                                38
  IPHONE SPEAKERS                        35

Of the iPhone-related keyword search phrases that generated click-thrus, the vast majority (88.4 percent) occurred on Google, which is actually 33 percent higher than comScore expected given Google’s market share of total Internet search click-thrus. What’s interesting to note is that all other search engines actually generated a lower percentage of iPhone-related clicks than their respective market shares of total search clicks.

  Share of Search Clicks for "iPhone"-Related Search Terms
  April 2008
  Total U.S. -- Home/Work/University Locations
  Source: comScore Marketer
                          Percent of Search    Percent of Total
  Search Engine            Clicks for Term      Search Clicks        Index
  Google                               88.4%             66.5%         133
  Yahoo                                 7.2%             20.0%          36
  MSN-Windows Live                      2.7%              6.9%          39
  AOL                                   1.2%              3.8%          32
  Ask.com                               0.6%              2.9%          19
  *Index = Percent of Search Clicks for Term/Percent of Total Search
   Clicks x 100; Index of 100 represents parity

comScore said today, “Not surprisingly, the top destination for iPhone-related searches was Apple Inc., which attracted 17.5 percent of all search click-thrus. Of those click-thrus to Apple Inc., 16.5 percent were the result of paid search and the remaining 83.5 percent were from organic search results. Google Sites, which host significant iPhone-related content on YouTube and Blogger sites, ranked second with 8.8 percent of iPhone-related click-thrus, nearly all of which came from organic search results. NetShelter Technology Media, which owns several Apple and iPhone-specific content sites, ranked third with 8.4 percent.”

ComScore went on to say that “among the top ten destinations, AT&T, Inc. — the lone cell phone carrier for iPhones in the U.S. — had the highest proportion of their search clicks coming from paid links (42.8 percent). Several of the top ten sites had no paid search strategy, but still managed to generate a substantial share of total clicks through organic results.”

  Paid vs. Organic Click-Thrus for "iPhone"-Related Search Destination
  Properties
  April 2008
  Total U.S. -- Home/Work/University Locations
  Source: comScore Marketer
                         Percent of Total      Percent of Click-Thrus to
  Destination Property    iPhone-Related          Destination Property
                           Click-Thrus            Paid           Organic
  Total Clicks              8.77 MM             0.61 MM          8.16 MM
  Apple Inc.                  17.5%               16.5%            83.5%
  Google Sites                 8.8%                0.7%            99.3%
  NetShelter Technology
   Media                       8.4%                0.0%           100.0%
  AOL LLC                      6.5%                0.0%           100.0%
  Gawker Media                 5.1%                0.0%           100.0%
  CNET Networks                3.7%                0.0%           100.0%
  AT&T, Inc.                   3.3%               42.8%            57.2%
  International Data Group     3.1%                0.0%           100.0%
  Yahoo! Sites                 2.7%                1.3%            98.7%
  ILOUNGE.COM                  1.8%                0.0%           100.0%

Related posts:

1. Top 50 USA Web Properties for April 2009 comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the...
2. comScore Search Engine Rankings for June 2009 comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) , a leader in measuring...
3. comScore Releases May 2009 Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), has released its monthly comScore...

Ask.com has revealed it’s Real Deal list of the top keyword search phrases for 2007. They said that it has been a MySpace year, and are revealing other interesting findings such as Barack Obama beating Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, the Boston Red Sox took the playing field, and Hannah Montana took over the TV screen.

According to Ask.com, “social media was on a lot of people’s minds, with MySpace garnering the #1 spot, but no other social networking services made the top 10. General information and entertainment searches dominated the list, with Dictionary in a solid #2 position.”

Well, let’s get on with the rankings…

  Ask.com's Top Real Deal Searches of 2007
  1.  MySpace                  6.  Cars
  2.  Dictionary               7.  Weather
  3.  Google                   8.  Games
  4.  Themes                   9.  Song Lyrics
  5.  Area Codes               10. Movies

I find it interesting that the dictionary and area codes over took cars and weather…I thought people really cared about the weather? But again, there weren’t as many hurricanes this past year as they originally predicted.

Presidential Hopefuls
If the presidential race relied solely on search, the Democrats would come out on top right now. “Ask.com’s 2007 presidential candidate queries were tallied and Barack Obama took the #1 spot. Even if Obama had not been victorious, the Democrats would still win the day, with Hillary Clinton at #2. However, on the red side of the house, Republican candidate Fred Thompson (#3) carried a commanding lead over his opponents.”

  Ask.com's Top Presidential Candidate Searches of 2007
  1.  Barack Obama             6.  John McCain
  2.  Hillary Clinton          7.  Ron Paul
  3.  Fred Thompson            8.  Rudy Giuliani
  4.  John Edwards             9.  Mike Huckabee
  5.  Mitt Romney              10. Dennis Kucinich

Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox won the World Series and also won the top spot on Ask.com’s list of this year’s most popular sports team searches. This year’s Super Bowl champions didn’t fair as well, with the Indianapolis Colts edged out of the top 10. Still, Indiana can take heart, knowing that their sports teams still make the grade. The South Bend, Indiana-based Notre Dame Fighting Irish not only snagged the #10 slot, but they have the distinction of being the only college team to make the list.

  Ask.com's Top Sports Team Searches of 2007
  1.  Boston Red Sox           6.  New York Yankees
  2.  Dallas Cowboys           7.  Green Bay Packers
  3.  New England Patriots     8.  Pittsburgh Steelers
  4.  Colorado Rockies         9.  Chicago Cubs
  5.  Chicago Bears            10. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Maybe it has to do with my Dallas Cowboys doing so well this year, or maybe it was because of the Cowboys’ Organization failing to purchase a great domain name (cowboys.com). In any case, the Dallas Cowboys couldn’t beat out the Boston Red Sox when it came to search this year.

Hannah Montana Rules TV
Hannah Montana, touring the country this year with her father (a guy who we don’t like here in Texas because of past things he’s done in Dallas), has a hit Disney Channel series…which has “also landed her the top spot in Ask.com’s list of 2007’s most popular television shows, securing her title as the reigning “Queen of Tween.” Cartoon programming held its own this year, with “Family Guy” securing the #2 slot and “SpongeBob SquarePants” nabbing #3. In addition, proving first-run isn’t everything, “Gilmore Girls” (#7) and “Charmed” (#9), both currently in syndication, outranked ABC primetime darling “Grey’s Anatomy” (#10).”

  Ask.com's Top Television Show Searches of 2007
  1.  Hannah Montana           6.  Big Brother
  2.  Family Guy               7.  Gilmore Girls
  3.  SpongeBob SquarePants    8.  South Park
  4.  WWE                      9.  Charmed
  5.  American Idol            10. Grey's Anatomy

I personally didn’t know that SpongeBob was so popular, but again, he’s on all the time and just narrowly beat out WWE and American Idol. Wow, it’s been another banner year for search.

Related posts:

1. comScore Releases May 2009 Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), has released its monthly comScore...
2. comScore Releases August 2009 Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) has released their monthly comScore...
3. comScore Search Engine Rankings for June 2009 comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) , a leader in measuring...

Lycos, a leading internet community destination for entertainment content (formerly known as the Lycos search engine), is reporting their “Lycos 50″ for the week ending July 14, 2007.

According to Lycos, the search activity for Al Qaeda jumped 700 percent in the past week, perhaps due to the USA’s Chertoff announcing publicly that Al Qaeda is more active than before and now apparently is “re-grouping” (whatever that means).

Lycos is also reporting that Emma Watson (part of the Harry Potter phenom) is more popular with internet users then Pamela Anderson and Lindsay Lohan (actually I’m not surprised about that).

Among the top gainers for the last week were Al Gore, Rihanna, Victoria Beckham (a former Spice Girl who just came to the United States with her husband and who has a new reality TV show). A “gainer” simply means that no one really searched for that keyword phrase before and now, all of a sudden, people are searching for the phrase. This typically happens with “instant celebrities” and other events that are “suddenly” in the news.

OK, since I know you’re interested in these top gainers for the week, here’s the official “Biggest Movers and Shakers” according to Lycos for the week ending July 14, 2007:

Biggest Movers and Shakers
for Week Ending July 14, 2007:

1. Al Qaeda           700 %
2. Al Gore            300 %
3. Rihanna            234 %
4. Hairspray          233 %
5. Emma Watson        217 %
6. Victoria Beckham   144 %
7. Jessica Biel       138 %
8. Weddings           117 %
9. Harry Potter        95 %
10. Bratz              67 %

It’s interesting to note that Hairspray is on the list, as there’s a new movie out, and that’s most likely why it’s on the list–apparently it looks like it’s going to be a hit.

Weddings are making the list this past week especially because so many people are…well…having a wedding or attending one?

Lycos reports that Emma Watson has achieved her highest rank ever on the Lycos 50, and cracked the top 10 this past week. She generated more online interest than Pamela Anderson (who was number 14), Jessica Simpson (who was number 26 on the list), and Hillary Duff (number 24 on the list). Even though Lindsay Lohan (18th on the list) just was released from rehab, no one apparently cares about her–Emma Watson is 171 percent more popular than Lindsay Lohan this week.

Also notable is Actress Jessica Biel (#27 on the Lycos 50) and singer Rihanna (#41 on the Lycos 50), who made their first-ever appearances on the Lycos 50 this week. Jessical Biel, perhaps best known for her work on the never-ending series, “7th Heaven,” is now starring in the Adam Sandler-produced comedy, “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.” Rihanna is about to make song-chart history in the UK with her current single, “Umbrella.” If the track stays at number one, it will be the longest-running number one single in Britain for more than a decade.

Lycos says that recent reports that the terrorist group named “Al Qaeda” has heightened efforts to put operatives in the USA, indicating that the USA is under its greatest risk of attack since before September 11, 2001, has caused a surge in search interest for Al Qaeda, which up 700 percent. Meanwhile, Hollywood’s newest “royals,” the Beckham’s, have caused quite a stir since arriving in Los Angeles last week.

If search activity is any indication, web users are far more interested in Victoria Beckham than in her soccer star husband David. Search interest in the former Spice Girl is up 144%, generating 338% more online activity than her infamous hubbie. The movie, “Hairspray,” based on the 2002 Broadway musical based on the 1988 film opens on July 20, and has increased 233%. And on August 3, the live action movie based on the Bratz dolls will be released, which accounts for increased search interest in Bratz, up 67 percent.

LYCOS 50 Top 10 Search Terms
for the Week Ending July 14, 2007:

1.  Paris Hilton
2.  Pokemon
3.  MySpace
4.  Naruto
5.  YouTube
6.  Britney Spears
7.  WWE
8.  RuneScape
9.  Disney
10.  Emma Watson

Related posts:

1. comScore Releases August 2009 Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) has released their monthly comScore...
2. comScore Says Google Leads Internet in Brazil and India comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) has recently released a study...
3. Best Practices for Video Optimization Photo courtesy akolmetz on Flickr.com I’ve talked a lot...

Lycos, the former-search-engine-turned-internet-portal, has come out with their list of the top keyword searches for the week ending June 30, 2007.

The death of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)’s Chris Benoit continued to drive a record number of searches, and the top iPhone searches include searches for iPhone accessories and reviews.

Lycos also revealed that searches for diets (probably having to do with the summer), Wimbledon (yes, it’s tennis season again), and eMule (a P2P file sharing app for Windows) were all top gainers.

Here’s the Lycos 50, the top movers and shakers for the week:

  Biggest Movers and Shakers for Week Ending June 30, 2007:
  1.         Chris Benoit          159300%
  2.         Diets                    815%
  3.         Wimbledon                522%
  4.         Heather Mills            400%
  5.         eMule                    325%
  6.         Shrek 3                  200%
  7.         iPhone                   179%
  8.         Barry Bonds              118%
  9.         Poker                    101%
  10.        Cristiano Ronaldo         89%

Lycos is reporting that keyword search activity Chris Benoit (#3) continues to explode, and is up 159,300% over the previous week, giving Benoit his first official appearance on The Lycos 50. This is the third most popular search phrase this week. News surrounding Benoit’s death has also caused a “surge in search interest for the WWE (#2), up 55% over the past week” according to Lycos.

As we all stood in line waiting to get our new iPhones last week, the keyword search activity for the iPhone continued to climb up a whopping 179%. Lycos says that the most popular iPhone related search queries include:

iPhone
iPhone Accessories
iPhone Reviews

Here’s the latest of the Lycos 50:

Te LYCOS 50(TM) Top 10 Search Terms
for the Week Ending June 30, 2007:
1.  Paris Hilton
2.  WWE
3.  Chris Benoit
4.  Pokemon
5.  Naruto
6.  Britney Spears
7.  MySpace
8.  RuneScape
9.  YouTube
10. Disney

Lycos is now a subsidiary of Daum Communications Corporation. Lycos is a leading Internet portal and e-commerce destination in Korea with a growing presence throughout the Asian markets. Lycos, Inc. operates search and technology websites that foster online communities, including the new Lycos Cinema and Lycos MIX video platforms, combining community with high-quality broadband video content. Other Lycos products and sites include Lycos.com, Hotbot.com, Tripod.com, Angelfire.com, Gamesville.com, Lycos Mail, Lycos Phone, Lycos Entertainment, Lycos Music and Lycos Planet. Lycos was acquired by Korean Daum Communications Corp. in October 2004 and has its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. Daum Communications Corp. is traded on the KOSDAQ: 035720, www.daum.net.

Related posts:

1. comScore Search Engine Rankings for June 2009 comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) , a leader in measuring...
2. comScore Releases May 2009 Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), has released its monthly comScore...
3. Zuberance Webinar June 24 Shows How to Turn Word of Mouth into Sales Zuberance, a Word of Mouth marketing company that provides...

According to Hitwise, several recent studies have come out on the topic such as the United Nation’s recent “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” study and is causing additional searches for the search phrase, “global warming”. Hitwise is also reporting that “the volume of searches for the search term ‘global warming’ reached an all time high for the four weeks ending February 17, 2007 receiving .010 percent of US searches online — up 213.6 percent compared to the four weeks ending February 18, 2006.”

Here’s more specific data from the Hitwise press release today:

Wikipedia.org received the most traffic from the search term ‘global warming’ for the four weeks ending February 17, 2007, with 14.5 percent of online searches for ‘global warming’ going to that website.

The Environmental Protection Agency (epa.gov) received the second largest volume of search traffic from ‘global warming’ with 12.8 percent followed the ClimateHotMap.org, which received 8 percent of search traffic.

ClimateCrisis.net, the website for the Al Gore movie — “An Inconvenient Truth,” received 2.8 percent of search traffic for ‘global warming’ for the same four week period.

Top Websites That Received Visits from the Term ‘global warming’
For the four weeks ending 2/17/2007

Domain Share (%)
www.wikipedia.org 14.52
www.epa.gov 12.84
www.climatehotmap.org 8.09
fightglobalwarming.com 5.88
www.nrdc.org 5.30
www.ncdc.noaa.gov 4.71
news.google.com 4.38
www.ucsusa.org 2.91
www.climatecrisis.net 2.88
www.myspace.com 2.68

Note that this data is from the Hitwise sample of 10 million US Internet users for the four weeks ending February 17, 2007.

Related posts:

1. comScore Releases First Public Report of Online Usage in Singapore According to a new report by comScore, Internet users...
2. comScore Search Engine Rankings for June 2009 comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) , a leader in measuring...
3. comScore Releases August 2009 Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) has released their monthly comScore...