Hitwise Intelligence - Analyst Weblogs

Canadians are heavy users of search engines and as we see in most markets, Search Engines are the top source of upstream visits to retail websites. In the month of June 2010, one third (33.21%) of upstream visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites came directly from a Search Engine. But, that is down year over year. In June 2009, Search Engines accounted for 39.18% of upstream visits, a 15% decline. What is making up the difference?

The following chart shows the top sources of upstream Canadian visits to retail websites in the month of June 2010 compared to June 2009. As illustrated in the chart, we have seen a slight increase in visits from other Shopping and Classifieds websites (shopping comparison in particular), Social Networks and Business and Finance.

The largest increase among these top industries was from Social Networks, up 37% year over year. Last week, the top downstream Shopping and Classifieds websites downstream from Facebook.com were mainly Classifieds websites (eBay Canada, various Kijiji and Craigslist city websites). Also among the top 30 were Sears Canada, Avon Canada, Amazon Canada, Ticketmaster Canada, and Walmart Canada.

This is an interesting mix of retailers, and not necessarily those you'd expect to be getting the most downstream traffic from Facebook. Stay tuned for more on social networking and retailing in Canada.

The summer is only half over, but search queries including ‘Back to School’ are on the rise and the share of variations have increased 28% for the week ending July 17, 2010 year-over-year. Over the past 2 years, the peak of the Back to School searches has occurred in mid-August – the week ending August 18, 2008 and the week ending August 22, 2009.

The top variations of Back to School related searches were around content – looking for ideas & quotes and shopping – sales, supplies and lists. In August last year, the top search variation was for back to school activities and searches for bulletin boards were also popular. Not surprisingly, shopping related terms were more competitive in terms of paid search with 63% of clicks for ‘back to school supplies’ coming from paid search and 70% for ‘back to school shopping list’.

When looking at the Back to School variations ranked by paid clicks, the trend toward shopping-related terms becomes even more apparent with the top paid 10 terms – supplies, shopping list and clothes. The sales opportunities during the Back to School season is likely to be worth the investment in paid campaigns or to seek out affiliates and other partners to help manage costs.

The summer is only half over, but search queries including ‘Back to School’ are on the rise and the share of variations have increased 28% for the week ending July 17, 2010 year-over-year. Over the past 2 years, the peak of the Back to School searches has occurred in mid-August – the week ending August 18, 2008 and the week ending August 22, 2009. The top variations of Back to School related searches were around content – looking for ideas & quotes and shopping – sales, supplies and lists. In August last year, the top search variation was for back to school activities and searches for bulletin boards were also popular. Not surprisingly, shopping related terms were more competitive in terms of paid search with 63% of clicks for ‘back to school supplies’ coming from paid search and 70% for ‘back to school shopping list’. When looking at the Back to School variations ranked by paid clicks, the trend toward shopping-related terms becomes even more apparent with the top paid 10 terms – supplies, shopping list and clothes. The sales opportunities during the Back to School season is likely to be worth the investment in paid campaigns or to seek out affiliates and other partners to help manage costs. Heather Dougherty /heather-dougherty/ Back to School Search Strategies

It’s been a few weeks now since The Times made their controversial move to take their content behind a paywall and charge online consumers to read their content.

The move has attracted a lot of attention as The Times is the first general news content provider to charge for its online content. Specialist publications such as the Wall Street Journal have successfully made the transition from free content to online paywalls, but The Times does not provide the niche content of a specialist publication and there has been ample speculation about consumers deserting The Times in favour of free online content.

We provided data to the Financial Times that revealed that The Times had lost two thirds of its market share by visits since the paywall was erected. In the weeks before the paywall went up www.thetimes.co.uk received an average of 4.29% of all visits to the News and Media – Print category. By the week ending 10 July 2010, The Times’ market share of visits had dropped to 1.43%, just 33% of where it had been five weeks previously.

The latest data for the week ending 17 July 2010 shows that The Times' market share has dropped off further still to 1.37% of the News and Media – Print category. The rate of decline is slowing however and the data suggests visits to The Times’ website are stabilising.

Experts and commentators may crow that this is exactly what they said would happen when Rupert Murdoch first took the decision to put The Times behind a paywall. Just take a moment though to see what the site has achieved.

The Times has retained a third of their online visits, and visitors are still spending an average of around three minutes per visit on the website, indicating that they are happy to pay for the content and not disappearing to alternative sites for news.

The website is also still ranked higher than the Financial Times in terms of market share of visits, its nearest competitor in the paywall market. The FT has received deserved praise for its financial model, with one journalist suggesting they had “unlocked the secret of eternal profitability”. If The Times can match that feat with its paywall then the exercise has been a success.

Time will tell if The Times loses further internet traffic and when the introductory offer of “£1 for the first 30 days” expires perhaps consumers will search for their news content from other providers. So far though, The Times seems to be doing just fine. For now Mr Murdoch’s gamble has paid off.

It’s been a few weeks now since The Times made their controversial move to take their content behind a paywall and charge online consumers to read their content. The move has attracted a lot of attention as The Times is the first general news content provider to charge for its online content. Specialist publications such as the Wall Street Journal have successfully made the transition from free content to online paywalls, but The Times does not provide the niche content of a specialist publication and there has been ample speculation about consumers deserting The Times in favour of free online content. We provided data to the Financial Times that revealed that The Times had lost two thirds of its market share by visits since the paywall was erected. In the weeks before the paywall went up www.thetimes.co.uk received an average of 4.29% of all visits to the News and Media – Print category. By the week ending 10 July 2010, The Times’ market share of visits had dropped to 1.43%, just 33% of where it had been five weeks previously. The latest data for the week ending 17 July 2010 shows that The Times' market share has dropped off further still to 1.37% of the News and Media – Print category. The rate of decline is slowing however and the data suggests visits to The Times’ website are stabilising. Experts and commentators may crow that this is exactly what they said would happen when Rupert Murdoch first took the decision to put The Times behind a paywall. Just take a moment though to see what the site has achieved. The Times has retained a third of their online visits, and visitors are still spending an average of around three minutes per visit on the website, indicating that they are happy to pay for the content and not disappearing to alternative sites for news. The website is also still ranked higher than the Financial Times in terms of market share of visits, its nearest competitor in the paywall market. The FT has received deserved praise for its financial model, with one journalist suggesting they had “unlocked the secret of eternal profitability”. If The Times can match that feat with its paywall then the exercise has been a success. Time will tell if The Times loses further internet traffic and when the introductory offer of “£1 for the first 30 days” expires perhaps consumers will search for their news content from other providers. So far though, The Times seems to be doing just fine. For now Mr Murdoch’s gamble has paid off. Robin Goad /robin-goad/ News and Media

The recent heat wave in the US has sent many in search of air conditioners to keep cool last week with temperatures reaching over 100 degrees in parts of the country. The share of search clicks on the term ‘air conditioners’ increased 268% for the week ending July 10, 2010 over the previous week and air conditioners ranked 3rd out of over 1,000 products included in a portfolio of top Appliances & Electronics.

Portable air conditioners have become a popular segment and ranked 2nd among all variations of ‘air conditioner’ and the keyword ‘portable’ was included in 185 queries. Last week, Mitsubishi, Goodman and LG were the top searched brands of air conditioners, highlighting opportunities for merchandising and search campaigns based upon consumer demand.

Bestbuy.com and Walmart.com received the highest share of traffic from searches on ‘air conditioners’ last week among websites in the Shopping & Classifieds category. Despite the recent demand for air conditioners, the share of paid search traffic for the term was just under 3% last week, suggesting that retailers may want to invest in paid campaigns to capitalize upon the increase in search activity.

My colleague Heather Hopkins also wrote about our neighbors to the north in Canada that are also on the hunt for ACs.

The recent heat wave in the US has sent many in search of air conditioners to keep cool last week with temperatures reaching over 100 degrees in parts of the country. The share of search clicks on the term ‘air conditioners’ increased 268% for the week ending July 10, 2010 over the previous week and air conditioners ranked 3rd out of over 1,000 products included in a portfolio of top Appliances & Electronics. Portable air conditioners have become a popular segment and ranked 2nd among all variations of ‘air conditioner’ and the keyword ‘portable’ was included in 185 queries. Last week, Mitsubishi, Goodman and LG were the top searched brands of air conditioners, highlighting opportunities for merchandising and search campaigns based upon consumer demand. Bestbuy.com and Walmart.com received the highest share of traffic from searches on ‘air conditioners’ last week among websites in the Shopping & Classifieds category. Despite the recent demand for air conditioners, the share of paid search traffic for the term was just under 3% last week, suggesting that retailers may want to invest in paid campaigns to capitalize upon the increase in search activity. My colleague Heather Hopkins also wrote about our neighbors to the north in Canada that are also on the hunt for ACs. Heather Dougherty /heather-dougherty/ Appliances & Electronics

We Canadians are notorious for our weather talk. Last week's heat wave in Ontario and Eastern Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal in particular, drove our obsession to new heights. Weather websites accounted for more than 1 in every 100 Canadian internet visits. Canadians were twice as likely to vistis Weather websites last week than were Americans (many of whom also suffered the same heat wave).

The following table lists the top 10 Weather websites last week.

The heat wave also drove up searches for air conditioners and other ways to cool down. The #1 Fast Moving Search Term sending visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites last week was "climatiseur portatif" (portable air conditioner). At #3 was "climatiseur" (air conditioner). These were also the #1 and #2 Fast Moving Search Terms sending visits to House and Garden websites. Also among the top 10 Fast Moving Search Terms to this category were "air climatise", "air conditioner" and "swimming pools".

We Canadians are notorious for our weather talk. Last week's heat wave in Ontario and Eastern Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal in particular, drove our obsession to new heights. Weather websites accounted for more than 1 in every 100 Canadian internet visits. Canadians were twice as likely to vistis Weather websites last week than were Americans (many of whom also suffered the same heat wave). The following table lists the top 10 Weather websites last week. The heat wave also drove up searches for air conditioners and other ways to cool down. The #1 Fast Moving Search Term sending visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites last week was "climatiseur portatif" (portable air conditioner). At #3 was "climatiseur" (air conditioner). These were also the #1 and #2 Fast Moving Search Terms sending visits to House and Garden websites. Also among the top 10 Fast Moving Search Terms to this category were "air climatise", "air conditioner" and "swimming pools". Heather Hopkins /us-heather-hopkins/ Canadian Insights News and Media Shopping & Classifieds

With the unveiling in June of the Universal theme park, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the movie trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and the release of Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, it's fair to say that Harry Potter fever is casting a spell over online audiences again.

Of the 32 million distinct search terms that UK internet users typed into search engines over June, nearly 16,500 of them contained the term “harry potter”, meaning 1 in every 2,000 search terms was Harry Potter-related. Such was the popularity of the fantastic boy wizard that “harry potter” was a more popular search term than “ipad uk”, the second most popular Apple iPad related search term.

These three Harry Potter events accounted for the majority of the search traffic and search terms. Of the top 20 Harry Potter-related search terms, five were related to the new theme park in Orlando, four were related to the Lego game and three were related to the new movie.

Despite having the fewest search terms, search traffic for the seventh Harry Potter movie was the highest in volume terms, accounting for over 8% of Harry Potter searches. Searches for the Universal theme park accounted for over 5.7% and the new Lego game took 3.8% of the market share of related searches.

In the lead up to Daniel Radcliffe and other stars from the movies opening of Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter on 18 June by, online searches received a noticeable spike in traffic.

Of the key search terms related to the Harry Potter theme park, Universal benefited from nearly a third of all search clicks. News sites including the BBC, Metro and Daily Mail made up the bulk of the remaining sites that received traffic boosts having featured stories about the launch of the theme park. From the travel industry, both Virgin Holidays and Travel Republic were among the top 20 websites to receive traffic from the collected Harry Potter search terms. Both travel companies received the majority of their traffic from paid clicks.

What’s particularly interesting to note about the Harry Potter searches is that they are all vying for attention combatively rather than collaboratively. Intuitively, you would expect fans of the saga to be interested in all things Harry Potter. The natural assumption then would be that searches would increase in tandem across the key events. The data shows however, that during the rise of searches for terms relating to the Harry Potter theme park, searches for the Harry Potter movies dropped off.

These results indicate that a joint marketing approach to promote both theme park and movie at the same time is a risky strategy. Far better to grab the Harry Potter fans for one event at one time and then grab a “second wind” with a follow-up announcement.

Follow Hitwise UK on Twitter.

With the unveiling in June of the Universal theme park, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the movie trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and the release of Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, it's fair to say that Harry Potter fever is casting a spell over online audiences again. Of the 32 million distinct search terms that UK internet users typed into search engines over June, nearly 16,500 of them contained the term “harry potter”, meaning 1 in every 2,000 search terms was Harry Potter-related. Such was the popularity of the fantastic boy wizard that “harry potter” was a more popular search term than “ipad uk”, the second most popular Apple iPad related search term. These three Harry Potter events accounted for the majority of the search traffic and search terms. Of the top 20 Harry Potter-related search terms, five were related to the new theme park in Orlando, four were related to the Lego game and three were related to the new movie. Despite having the fewest search terms, search traffic for the seventh Harry Potter movie was the highest in volume terms, accounting for over 8% of Harry Potter searches. Searches for the Universal theme park accounted for over 5.7% and the new Lego game took 3.8% of the market share of related searches. In the lead up to Daniel Radcliffe and other stars from the movies opening of Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter on 18 June by, online searches received a noticeable spike in traffic. Of the key search terms related to the Harry Potter theme park, Universal benefited from nearly a third of all search clicks. News sites including the BBC, Metro and Daily Mail made up the bulk of the remaining sites that received traffic boosts having featured stories about the launch of the theme park. From the travel industry, both Virgin Holidays and Travel Republic were among the top 20 websites to receive traffic from the collected Harry Potter search terms. Both travel companies received the majority of their traffic from paid clicks. What’s particularly interesting to note about the Harry Potter searches is that they are all vying for attention combatively rather than collaboratively. Intuitively, you would expect fans of the saga to be interested in all things Harry Potter. The natural assumption then would be that searches would increase in tandem across the key events. The data shows however, that during the rise of searches for terms relating to the Harry Potter theme park, searches for the Harry Potter movies dropped off. These results indicate that a joint marketing approach to promote both theme park and movie at the same time is a risky strategy. Far better to grab the Harry Potter fans for one event at one time and then grab a “second wind” with a follow-up announcement. Follow Hitwise UK on Twitter. Robin Goad /robin-goad/ Gadgets Games Movies Paid search Search Toys Travel

Quite possibly the first octopus to receive death threats (first from Argentina fans, now German fans), Paul the Octopus (or “Oktopus Orakel”) has catapulted into fame after correctly predicting the winner for all six of the German matches in the World Cup. Although yesterday’s prediction about Spain winning the semi-finals has probably made Paul the most famous octopus on the planet, searchers have been curious about the psychic octopus for weeks. Out of 423 search queries including the keyword ‘octopus’, ‘octopus world cup’ ranked 10th for the 4 weeks ending July 3, 2010 and 32 in total were related to the World Cup predictions. Fans were hoping that Paul could predict the outcome of all of the matches with plenty of variations including non-German matches.

Quite possibly the first octopus to receive death threats (first from Argentina fans, now German fans), Paul the Octopus (or “Oktopus Orakel”) has catapulted into fame after correctly predicting the winner for all six of the German matches in the World Cup. Although yesterday’s prediction about Spain winning the semi-finals has probably made Paul the most famous octopus on the planet, searchers have been curious about the psychic octopus for weeks. Out of 423 search queries including the keyword ‘octopus’, ‘octopus world cup’ ranked 10th for the 4 weeks ending July 3, 2010 and 32 in total were related to the World Cup predictions. Fans were hoping that Paul could predict the outcome of all of the matches with plenty of variations including non-German matches. Heather Dougherty /heather-dougherty/ Search Strategies

Google Thursday announced an agreement to acquire ITA Software, a flight information software company. We at Hitwise have been waiting for such an announcement for some time. In 2006 when Google Finance was launched, we looked at the top downstream industries from Google and noticed an obvious gap: Travel. Then again in 2008, when Google Health was launched we did the same analysis and pointed out the same gap.

The following table shows the top 20 downstream industries visited after Google in June 2010. Google's presence is obvious in most: Search Engines (Google.com), Entertainment (YouTube), Shopping and Classifieds (Google Shopping, Google Base), Business and Finance (Google Finance). Google's presence is perhaps less obvious in others: Social Networking and Forums (YouTube, Orkut, Google Talk), Education (Knol, Google Book Search, Google Scholar), Lifestyle (Blogger).

While Maps is an important component of our Travel category, Google has so far lacked a presence in the Travel subcategories of Travel Agencies or Destinations and Accommodations.

Travel industry executives are reportedly wary of the deal, concerned that Google will wield too much power. In June, Google was the #1 source of traffic to Travel Agencies, accounting for 15% of upstream visits. Google accounted for nearly 4 times the share of clicks to Travel Agencies compared with the #2 source of clicks, Yahoo! Search.

Destinations and Accommodations websites are even more reliant on Google for visits, with 32% of upstream clicks in June coming from Google.com. This is more than 6 times the share of clicks coming from the #2 traffic source, again Yahoo! Search.

It may have taken four years since our initial analysis for the acquisition but what does clickstream data tell us about Google's next potential foray? Games. After Travel, the next biggest downstream industry from Google.com is Games and Google does not yet have a presence in that industry. Stay tuned...

Google Thursday announced an agreement to acquire ITA Software, a flight information software company. We at Hitwise have been waiting for such an announcement for some time. In 2006 when Google Finance was launched, we looked at the top downstream industries from Google and noticed an obvious gap: Travel. Then again in 2008, when Google Health was launched we did the same analysis and pointed out the same gap. The following table shows the top 20 downstream industries visited after Google in June 2010. Google's presence is obvious in most: Search Engines (Google.com), Entertainment (YouTube), Shopping and Classifieds (Google Shopping, Google Base), Business and Finance (Google Finance). Google's presence is perhaps less obvious in others: Social Networking and Forums (YouTube, Orkut, Google Talk), Education (Knol, Google Book Search, Google Scholar), Lifestyle (Blogger). While Maps is an important component of our Travel category, Google has so far lacked a presence in the Travel subcategories of Travel Agencies or Destinations and Accommodations. Travel industry executives are reportedly wary of the deal, concerned that Google will wield too much power. In June, Google was the #1 source of traffic to Travel Agencies, accounting for 15% of upstream visits. Google accounted for nearly 4 times the share of clicks to Travel Agencies compared with the #2 source of clicks, Yahoo! Search. Destinations and Accommodations websites are even more reliant on Google for visits, with 32% of upstream clicks in June coming from Google.com. This is more than 6 times the share of clicks coming from the #2 traffic source, again Yahoo! Search. It may have taken four years since our initial analysis for the acquisition but what does clickstream data tell us about Google's next potential foray? Games. After Travel, the next biggest downstream industry from Google.com is Games and Google does not yet have a presence in that industry. Stay tuned... Heather Hopkins /us-heather-hopkins/ Search Travel

Rolling Stone Magazine last week published a tell-all account that led to the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal. On June 23, the day after the article appeared online, www.rollingstone.com became the #402 ranked website among All Categories of websites, up from #5,094 the day before the article appeared. Market share of Internet visits to the website increased 160x in the seven days to June 23. Rolling Stone ranked as the #41 most visited News and Media website on June 23 Two thirds (66) of the top 100 search terms sending visits to the Rolling Stone Magazine website last week related to the article. The only other celebrities whose names were included in search terms sending visits to the site were Lady Gaga and Taylor Lautner. The article, subsequent apology and resignation were big news. The News and Media industry experienced a 7% gain in visits last week. The following table displays the top 10 websites receiving visits from searches for "stanley mcchrystal" (the highest volume search term last week with the General's family name). This is a great example of a news organization making the news. Because of the way search engines work, the top search term, "stanley mcrystal" sent visits to a host of websites with Rolling Stone coming in at #9 last week. Even for searches for which Rolling Stone appeared at the top of the organic results, the Google News shortcut appeared ahead of the top organic listing. If Rolling Stone Magazine wanted to draw more readers to the orignial article and its follow up articles, the only real option to stay at the top of the search engine resutls would have been to pay for visits. The CPC would have been low since 99% of clicks on most McChrystal related searches were on organic listings last week. Heather Hopkins /us-heather-hopkins/ News and Media

Rolling Stone Magazine last week published a tell-all account that led to the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal. On June 23, the day after the article appeared online, www.rollingstone.com became the #402 ranked website among All Categories of websites, up from #5,094 the day before the article appeared. Market share of Internet visits to the website increased 160x in the seven days to June 23. Rolling Stone ranked as the #41 most visited News and Media website on June 23

Two thirds (66) of the top 100 search terms sending visits to the Rolling Stone Magazine website last week related to the article. The only other celebrities whose names were included in search terms sending visits to the site were Lady Gaga and Taylor Lautner.

The article, subsequent apology and resignation were big news. The News and Media industry experienced a 7% gain in visits last week. The following table displays the top 10 websites receiving visits from searches for "stanley mcchrystal" (the highest volume search term last week with the General's family name).

This is a great example of a news organization making the news. Because of the way search engines work, the top search term, "stanley mcrystal" sent visits to a host of websites with Rolling Stone coming in at #9 last week. Even for searches for which Rolling Stone appeared at the top of the organic results, the Google News shortcut appeared ahead of the top organic listing. If Rolling Stone Magazine wanted to draw more readers to the orignial article and its follow up articles, the only real option to stay at the top of the search engine resutls would have been to pay for visits. The CPC would have been low since 99% of clicks on most McChrystal related searches were on organic listings last week.

Heading into the season for summer vacations, visits to a PhoCusWright Canada Travel custom category comprised of 720 websites are up 6% for the week ending June 26, 2010 as compared to the previous week. The sub-categories within Travel that experienced the highest week-over-week upticks were Car Rentals (+15%), Cruises (+8) and Reviews and Planning (+8).

When looking back at the past year, the PhoCusWright Travel Category experienced the highest share of visits in January, followed by summer peaks in mid-July.

Search plays a key role in driving traffic to the PhoCusWright Travel websites and referred 36% of upstream visits last week. While much of search traffic within the Travel category tends to be heavily branded, the top generic term to grow year-over-year for the 12 weeks ending June 26, 2010 was ‘vacation packages all inclusive’. Four out of the top 5 search queries including the keyword ‘vacation’ to increase year-over-year also included ‘packages’ or ‘all inclusive’. This summer, Canadian travelers are increasingly showing a demand for fixed price vacations that are easier to plan to fit a budget, highlighting an opportunity to promote vacation packages within search campaigns and other marketing initiatives.

Join us on Wednesday, June 30th for an online event with PhoCusWright Canada – Online Travel in Canada: Market Size, Consumer Trends & Traffic”.

Heading into the season for summer vacations, visits to a PhoCusWright Canada Travel custom category comprised of 720 websites are up 6% for the week ending June 26, 2010 as compared to the previous week. The sub-categories within Travel that experienced the highest week-over-week upticks were Car Rentals (+15%), Cruises (+8) and Reviews and Planning (+8). When looking back at the past year, the PhoCusWright Travel Category experienced the highest share of visits in January, followed by summer peaks in mid-July. Search plays a key role in driving traffic to the PhoCusWright Travel websites and referred 36% of upstream visits last week. While much of search traffic within the Travel category tends to be heavily branded, the top generic term to grow year-over-year for the 12 weeks ending June 26, 2010 was ‘vacation packages all inclusive’. Four out of the top 5 search queries including the keyword ‘vacation’ to increase year-over-year also included ‘packages’ or ‘all inclusive’. This summer, Canadian travelers are increasingly showing a demand for fixed price vacations that are easier to plan to fit a budget, highlighting an opportunity to promote vacation packages within search campaigns and other marketing initiatives. Join us on Wednesday, June 30th for an online event with PhoCusWright Canada – Online Travel in Canada: Market Size, Consumer Trends & Traffic”. Heather Dougherty /heather-dougherty/ Canada Travel

The Ontario government surprised many of us a couple of weeks back with a cheque. Before many had seen news coverage of the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) rebate, the funds had already made their way into bank accounts across the province. Hitwise data reveals that searches including the word "HST" peaked in the week ending June 12th, 2010, the week many Ontarians received the rebate. For the past two weeks, the top search terms to include the acronym "HST" were "HST rebate Ontario", "HST rebate", "HST", "HST rebate cheques Ontario" and "HST Ontario". While the terms "HST" and "HST rebate" were no doubt bouyed by BC consumers, the top BC specific search term only came in at #9 last week ("hst bc"). The BC government did not mail out cheques and so it is perhaps unsurprising that interest hasn't been as high. Among the top 100 search terms that included the acronym "HST" in the twelve weeks to June 19th, the top searches focussed on the refund or rebate, petition and finding out what the HST is. A search on Google.ca reveals that many websites are competing in the paid search listings for HST related searches. Among the top downstream websites for the top HST searches are the Ontario Ministry of Revenue, Red Flag Deals, Canada's Revenue Agency, and TaxTips.ca. More surprising was GoFTP.com, one of the top downstream sites for "HST Rebate Ontario" and "HST Rebate". The site hosts a very active forum on the HST Rebate and it ranks quite high on Google.ca for HST related searches. The Ontario Revenue Agency website has been bombarded by consumers keen for more information on the rebate and the harmonized tax. Visits more than tripled in the four weeks to June 19th. In the week to June 12th, at the peak, the website ranked #2 among Provincial Government websites. In the week to June 19th it ranked #3. It will be interesting to see how reaction to the HST evolves in Ontario after the cheques have been cashed and the rebate money spent. Heather Hopkins /us-heather-hopkins/ Business & Finance Canadian Insights Government