Last week we released the Hitwise list of top search terms for the year. A closer look at the “head of the tail” search queries can offer insight into user behavior online, show trends in website popularity, as well as affirm the influence of the major cultural trends of the year.
Below is the list of the top 10 individual search queries, as reported in the press release:
myspace
myspace.com
ebay
yahoo
mapquest
www.myspace.com
yahoo.com
my space
myspace layouts
lyrics
This gives you an indication of the sheer popularity of MySpace, but not other websites, so here I have broken down the list of terms into two categories: navigational (searcher’s intent is most likely to go to a specific website) and generic (no specific website intimated by query)
Top Navigational Terms
The top navigational searches for 2006 were:
myspace
ebay
yahoo
mapquest
craigslist
walmart
google
target
amazon
wikipedia
Seasoned Internet users often express disbelief that people enter such generic queries as ‘myspace’ and ‘google’ into search boxes. The search box, which is increasingly embedded into the browser, seems to serve as the navigation bar for many users. Navigational queries have always topped the search lists in the 2+ years I have been at Hitwise, and the trend is not decreasing. By virtue of reading this blog, you are most likely not the average Internet user, and probably type addresses directly into the URL bar, or use bookmarks on your toolbar to navigate to your favorite sites.

• The most popular search query of the year, by far, was ‘myspace.’ The share of searches for ‘myspace’ increased more than threefold when comparing the last week of 2005 to the last week of 2006. Its share of searches was more than double the second most popular navigational term, ‘ebay.’

• ‘Yahoo’ and ‘google’ are consistently among the most popular search queries. Many people have other portals set as their homepage. The #3 query on Yahoo! Search in December 2006 was ‘google.’ The #3 query on Google in December 2006 was ‘yahoo.’ Sometimes you want a search engine, and sometimes you want a portal.

• The terms that grew the most in share of search when comparing the week ending December 31, 2005 to the week ending December 30, 2006 were ‘google,’ up 159%, ‘wikipedia,’ up 146%, and ‘craigslist,’ up 138%. Here’s to user generated content and the minimalist interface!

• Searches for offline retailers ‘walmart’ and ‘target’ peaked the week of Thanksgiving, unlike ‘ebay’ and ‘amazon,’ which peaked several weeks later. There’s proof that people do a lot of offline shopping research on the web. Click here
  for a more detailed version of the chart below.

• Searches for ‘mapquest’ surge in the summer months, when people are driving more.

Top Generic Terms
The top 10 generic search terms in 2006 were:
lyrics
dictionary
maps
games
weather
people search
driving directions
baby names
free music downloads
chat
The nature of the terms on the list demonstrate just how young the internet population is, with terms like ‘lyrics,’ ‘dictionary,’ ‘games’ and ‘free music downloads’ topping the list. Again, it’s always surprising that people aren’t more specific in their searches (or don’t have these sites bookmarked) but that’s that the long tail is for. It should be acknowledged that that ‘dictionary’ and ‘weather’ could be either navigational or generic, depending on where the user goes, but we’ll assume they are generic for this analysis.
Staring at the below chart of all 10 terms may give you a headache, so I’ll point out the highlights:

• The volume of searches for ‘dictionary’ is tied to the academic year, staying high from January – May and September – December, with big dips in the summer, the week of Thanksgiving, and during Christmas vacation.

• Searches for ‘games’ increase during Thanksgiving and Christmas, when students are home looking for entertainment. Searches for ‘free music downloads’ surge after Christmas when people get new mp3 players.

• Searches for ‘weather’ have various peaks throughout the year related to major regional weather events such as snow storms and hurricanes.

• The volume of searches for ‘maps’ and ‘chat’ appears to be on the decline – it may be the case that people are getting more specific with their searches and depending on one box results to get them to the maps they need.

• The volume of searches for ‘baby names’ nearly doubled the week of Valentine’s Day!