HITWISE UK UPDATE

Surge in visits to weather and environmental sites in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

London, 6^th September 2005

Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today reports that UK traffic to weather and environmental sites has surged in the wake of the US hurricane disaster.

Weather.com and National Geographic sites spike as disaster unfolds

Following news that President Bush had declared a state of emergency for the state of Louisiana on August 28^th in response to the impact of Hurricane Katrina, UK internet users flocked to online weather sites to view the latest updates on the disaster, whilst searches on ‘Hurricane Katrina’ have grown 9-fold in the past week.

UKvisits to the USwebsite of The Weather Channel, www.weather.com, increased by 27% between Saturday 27^th and Monday 29^th August. The second most popular downstream destination for visitors to www.weather.com was the homepage of the US-based ABC News (www.abcnews.com), which provided real-time updates on the disaster as it unfolded.

In addition, UKtraffic to the Hitwise Lifestyle – Environment category saw a significant surge as UKinternet users struggled to comprehend the implications of the disaster for global weather conditions, including global warming. From August 27^th to the 29^th, traffic to sites in the Environment category surged by 15%. In particular, market share for the website of National Geographic (www.nationalgeographic.com) saw a pronounced spike, with traffic surging 42% from August 27^th to August 31^st. This increase followed on from news that the environmental publication had predicted the impact of the Katrina disaster in its October 2004 issue.

Support galvanises for American Red Cross as disaster worsens

While traffic to environment and lifestyle sites has tapered off somewhat since the height of the disaster last week, the weight of visits to related charity sites has continued to grow as the seriousness of the situation in New Orleansand surrounding areas has become more apparent. The official website of the American Red Cross (www.redcross.org) yesterday was the fourth most visited website in the Community - Humanitarian category, and experienced a sixteen-fold increase on its pre-hurricane share of internet visits, and almost four times the traffic it received on Tuesday August 30^th.

Traffic to www.weather.com, 1^st August – 2nd September 2005

Traffic to www.redcross.org, 1^st August – 2^nd September 2005

Searches on ‘Hurricane Katrina’, w/e 6^th August – w/e 3^rd September 2005

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.

By monitoring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites.  Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as affiliate programs, search marketing, online advertising, content development and lead generation.

Hitwise collects Internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in mega panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. 

More information about Hitwiseis available at www.hitwise.com.

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Jannie Cahill
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