The online music retailer eMusic has put out some interesting data that, it is claimed, supports the famous “Long Tail” theory of online retail. Chris Anderson (picture), the editor in chief of Wired magazine, coined the phrase in a 2004 article, claiming that Internet retailers would sell more niche products at the expense of mass-market items. However, this theory was challenge in a recent study by Will Page and Andrew Bud, which claimed more than 10 million of the 13 million music tracks available on the Internet failed to find a single buyer last year. In response, eMusic has reported that 75% of the tracks in its catalogue were bought at least once in 2008.

I thought I had written our final blog post before Christmas, but I thought this data was too interesting not to share! As the chart below illustrates, last week traffic to E Cards websites was up 11.8% on the equivalent week last year.

Nintendo’s Wii Console, which accounted for more than one in three games console searches in November, overtook Nintendo’s Wii Fit to become the UK’s most searched-for product in November. The company’s DS Lite was also the fastest growing console online, with six times more searches in November than October. The popular handheld is now the second most searched-for console in the UK, accounting for more than one in every four games consoles searches.

While mobile phones continue to be the most searched-for product in the UK, they have seen a 23% decrease in searches since October as consumers turn their attention to Christmas gifts such as toys, video games and games consoles.

Last week we reported that the Nintendo Wii Fit video game is currently the most searched for product in the UK. In that post we also identified the Apple iPhone as the third most searched for product, followed by the Nokia N96 in fourth position. As the table below illustrates, during October mobile phones were the most searched for category of consumer electronic products in the UK, receiving over twice the volume of searches as video games, and three times that of computers.

Wii Fit, Nintendo’s popular video game, is currently the most searched-for product by UK Internet shoppers in the run-up to Christmas. During October there were more UK Internet searches for Wii Fit than the Nintendo Wii, the most popular product last Christmas. After Wii Fit and the Wii console, the third most searched-for gadget is the Apple iPhone.

London - After months of campaigning, Americans are today finally voting for the 44th president of their country. The US research team have been doing a great job monitoring search behaviour across the pond, so I thought I’d have a look at what’s been happening in Britain. The chart below illustrates the volume of searches for the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates in the UK this year, with Gordon Brown added in to give some context.

We’ve had a number of requests for Google Chrome stats, so here they are… Yesterday (September 2nd) the homepage of the Google’s new browser was the 130th most visited in the UK, accounting for 0.06% of all UK Internet visits. As you can see from the table below, www.google.com/chrome was fifth most visited site in our Computers and Internet – Software category, accounting for 1.52% of all traffic to the industry. However, its two main competitors – Microsoft and Mozilla – still received more traffic yesterday.

The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. now 70; 2. christian bale; 3. global gathering; 4. heath ledger; 5. batman; 6. dark knight; 7. womad; 8. shipwrecked; 9. runehq; 10. hamfatter. Four of these terms – ‘christian bale’, ‘heath ledger’, ‘batman’. ‘dark knight’ – related to the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, which was released in the UK last weekend following a record breaking opening in the US.

The two Heathers (Hopkins and Dougherty) have both written about the growth of Twitter in the US recently, so here is some UK data on the micro-blogging service. As you can see from the chart below, the site’s growth has really ramped up this year. UK Internet visits to www.twitter.com have increased by 631% over the last 12 months, with 485% of that growth coming this year. Twitter is more popular with Brits than Americans: last week the site’s share of UK Internet visits was 70% higher its share of visits in America.

A few months ago we posted a list of the top 10 band / artist searches sending traffic to MySpace, the primary destination of searches for new artists. We’ve decided to expand the list to cover our whole Social Networking and Forums category, which includes the likes of Facebook and Bebo as well as YouTube (the fourth most popular destination for new artist searches after the MySpace, the band’s homepage and Wikipedia). So, here is a list of the hottest bands in the UK during June, based on the top 50 band / artist searches sending traffic to our Social Networking and Forums category (with their May position in brackets).

O2 started taking orders for Apple’s new 3G iPhone yesterday, and as you would expect it experienced a spike in traffic to both its homepage and online shop. Unfortunately the surge in demand caused the carrier’s site to crash, although it is now back online. However, O2 is already out of iPhones, and its site is carrying a message requesting customers come back on July 10th to place their order. Carphone Warehouse, which also experienced an increase in traffic yesterday, has a similar message up on its site.

The CBI has issued a report claiming that clothing retailers have just experienced their worst month for quarter of a century. I can only assume that this fall in sales must be down to an underperforming high street, because the online fashion industry is booming. Our Apparel and Accessories category is currently the fourth largest retail sub sector (behind Auctions, Department Stores, and Rewards and Directories), accounting for almost 1 in every 10 UK Internet visits to an online retailer.

That’s what I’m talking about! Like nine million other Britons, the Hitwise UK office has been slightly obsessed with The Apprentice over the last few months. We were pleased to see peoples’ choice Lee McQueen crowned winner last night, although we do have sympathy for the runner up and favourite, Claire Young (I wonder if she’ll take up that job offer from Karen Brady?). In addition to the reverse pterodactyl and Clurr, our other favourites included thespian Raef (also the viewer’s favourite - ‘raef’ and ‘raef bjayou’ were the top contestant search terms sending traffic to the programme’s homepage over the last 4 weeks); Lady Lucinda Ribenaberet; Kevin, the only gay in the Italian restaurant; and of course Surallen himself. Naturally, we weren’t so keen of on the evil trinity of Alex, Michael and Jenny.

Apple is expected to launch a new version of its iPhone at the Apple World Wide Developers' Conference in San Francisco today Monday. As with all such events, the speculation amongst Apple fans and foes has almost reached fever pitch. Last week UK Internet visits to the iPhone website reached a new high. In fact, there were over twice the number of visits last week than during any of previous peaks, including the initial announcement, UK launch and recent price cut.

The launch of Freesat, the free satellite TV service provided by the BBC and ITV in the UK, proved popular with online consumers during its launch week. UK Internet traffic to www.freesat.co.uk, the service’s online homepage, increased by 627% between the weeks ending May 3rd and May 10th, while UK Internet searches for the term ‘freesat’ increased by 752% over the same period, making it the fastest moving search term in the UK last week.

Last week Apple and 02 announced that they had cut the price of the 8GB iPhone by £100 in the UK until June 1st. As always with Apple, the announcement generated a huge amount of media interest – including speculation that the launch of a 3G iPhone is now imminent. ‘iphone’ was the seventh fastest moving search term sending traffic to our News and Media category last week, and searches for the term reached their highest peak this year as a result.

The ‘virtual fashion game’ Miss Bimbo has picked up a lot of press - Google News UK was the second ranked site receiving up traffic from the search term ‘miss bimbo’ last week. The website allows users to create a virtual "bimbo" and compete against other players to earn “bimbo dollars” by making her as attractive and famous as possible. The controversy surrounds the activities the characters participate in, which range from partying and purchasing new clothes, to breast enlargement and weight loss using diet pills. The latter activity sparked so much outrage that the site has now removed the functionality from the game.

The Brit Awards take place tomorrow evening and there are three awards up for the public vote: best British Breakthrough Act, best British Live Act, and best British Single. The latter is tricky to analyze using search data, but I thought I’d have a look at the first two. The chart below illustrates weekly UK Internet searches for the five acts nominated for British Breakthrough Act in the weeks since the nominations were announced.

“Camden Town is burning down” claimed Amy Winehouse during her Grammy acceptance speech and, unfortunately, parts of it actually were. The fire that ravaged through Camden Market at the weekend received a lot of coverage in the press, and as a result searches for ‘camden’ increased by 250% last week. The top two destinations for searchers were the Camden Lock Market homepage and the Camden local government page, both of which experienced a significant spike in traffic on Sunday.