Melbourne, 17 November 2006, Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, reports that Search Engines continue to be the predominant source for Australian visits to the Lifestyle – Politics category leading up to the Victorian State election, sending 27.3 percent for the week ending 11 November 2006. Among the websites within the Computers and Internet - Search Engines category, Google Australia sent 17.29 percent of visits to the Politics category showing the unmistakable influence of visits to political websites by Google.

In contrast, in the US mid-term elections, Hitwise observed that the Computers and Internet – Email Services category was the second-most-popular category responsible for sending visits to political websites, with 6.78 percent of visits, compared to 6^th position in Australia with 4.24 percent share. This suggests that political parties in Australian state elections have room to further leverage e-newsletters and online viral campaigning techniques to spread party policy. In the US, Search Engines were also the most important contributor of traffic to political websites with 28.17 percent share week ending 4 November 2006.

Voter Concerns – Water and Drought

Hitwise search terms are able to give an indication of voter concerns. Search term volumes on ‘water tanks’, ‘water restrictions’ and ‘drought’ have increased sharply prior to the Victorian November 2006 state elections. Searches on the term, ‘drought’ are however, more likely to be directed to News & Media and Education online properties - with 12.29 percent and 12.15 percent industry traffic share respectively - than political websites. As drought and similar issues such as climate change pick up in the consciousness of the population, political parties have the opportunity to monitor and respond to this momentum via targeted content and search engine listings for key election issues. 

Online users have been increasingly visiting the websites of the Victorian branches of the major political parties to inform their decision on November 25. All websites attracted a stark jump in visits with the Australian Greens Victoria (www.vic.greens.org.au) at the lead for the week ending 11 November 2006. People Power (www.peoplepower.org.au) measured the largest increase over the last 2 weeks with visits spiking by 124.2 percent. Referral traffic amongst Political websites has also increased over the same time period by 23.6 percent indicating users could be undecided and are engaged in comparison research.

(See table)

Search Terms to Political Websites

Contact

For further information, or to request an interview, please contact:

James Borg on +61 3 8530 2420 james.borg@hitwise.com

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 anonymously captures the 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.