Baby Alive, Digi Makeover, Fisher Price Digital Camera Among Most Searched For Toys This Holiday Season

Nintendo Wii Searches Outnumber Playstation 3 by 3-to-1

NEW YORK, NY – December 12^th, 2006 

Every holiday season, along with longstanding favorites, there are usually one or two new toys that become the most searched on toys of the holiday season. For the 2006 holiday season, five new toys have made it into the top ten most searched-for toys.

Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, today announced that the fastest growing toy-related search terms since the Thanksgiving week kick-off of the holiday shopping season (week ending November 25, 2006 vs. week ending December 9, 2006) were 'digi makeover', with its share of searches up 468 percent, 'crayola cutter', up 287 percent, and 'fisher price digital camera', up 110 percent. Other fast growing terms in that period were 'baby alive', up 86 percent, and 'moon sand', up 24 percent. The chart below lists the most searched for products sorted by electronics, apparel and accessories and toy product types for the week ending December 9, 2006.

“Our search term data reveals that the 2006 holiday season is the first time that new digital toys have outpaced some of the more traditional items in our top searched-for-list such as Barbie, Bratz and American Girl,” said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise. “However, Baby Alive, a doll originally introduced in 1973, took two spots in the top ten, demonstrating a renewed interest in retro toys.”

Nintendo Wii Three Times More Popular in Search than Playstation 3

Gaming console sales have been plagued this year by spotty availability of the newest consoles: the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. Despite scant availability, Nintendo Wii is the more sought-after game system with Internet searchers. 'Nintendo wii' was the most searched for product overall for the week ending December 9, 2006, receiving 0.0245 percent of all Internet searches. Searches for Nintendo Wii outnumbered searches for 'playstation 3' (0.0075 percent of all searches) by more than three to one.

Uggs, Heelys and Crocs Are Popular Shoes in Search

Ugg boots have come back strong in 2006, with the share of searches for 'ugg boots' up 121 percent for the week ending December 9, 2006 versus the same week last year (week ending December 10, 2005). Searches for Heelys, the children's shoe with wheels, were up 150 percent in the same period. The colorful Crocs shoes, despite their usual summer popularity, have been another hot product search this season. The share of searches for 'crocs' was up 152 percent for the week ending December 9, 2006 versus the same week last year (week ending December 10, 2005).

Online HolidayShopping Update:

Visits Increased 4.8 Percent Last Week to Hitwise Retail 100 Index^[1]

• This week, the Hitwise US Retail 100 Index chart shows that visits to the websites within the Index were up 4.8 percent for the week ending December 9, 2006 versus the same week last year (December 10, 2005).Amazon.com remained the most visited website within the Index last week, receiving 13.54 percent of visits among the Retail 100 Index. Walmart received the second-most visits with 8.79 percent. Kohls.com moved back into the top 15 coming in at number 15. Nintendo Wii remained the top product search term for the third straight week. The product term ‘ipod’ moved back into the second spot followed ‘uggs’ and ‘ugg boots’ among the most popular product searches for the week ending December 9, 2006.
• Amazon.com remained the most visited website within the Index last week, receiving 13.54 percent of visits among the Retail 100 Index. Walmart received the second-most visits with 8.79 percent. Kohls.com moved back into the top 15 coming in at number 15.
• Nintendo Wii remained the top product search term for the third straight week. The product term ‘ipod’ moved back into the second spot followed ‘uggs’ and ‘ugg boots’ among the most popular product searches for the week ending December 9, 2006.

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 captures the anonymous 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.

^[1] The Hitwise US Retail 100 Index is comprised of the leading retail websites, but excludes websites from the following categories - auctions, classifieds, computer manufacturers, relationship sales, reward point collecting and home entertainment – music download, DVD and video game rental.