Sports Illustrated has published its annual Swimsuit Issue. I noticed the website in my weekly fast movers report and thought it could make a fun post. When I looked at the data however, something struck me as really odd. The top search term sending visits to the Swimsuit Issue website was "si swimsuit issue". The term had a huge spike this year but was relatively flat for the past two years. I had expected it to spike for each annual issue. What did this year's issue include, I wondered, to cause such a frenzy online.

But this year's spike is not just about some top model - for the past three years consumers didn't search for "si swimsuit issue" but instead used the term "sports illustrated swimsuit". Take a look at the following chart, showing the market share of US Internet searches for "si swimsuit issue" (this year's chosen term) and "sports illustrated swimsuit" over the past year and a bit. Year on year we've seen a 26% increase in the share of US Internet searches for "sports illustrated swimsuit". But then there is this new term - where did it come from?

I am sure there are people much more up to date on the SI Swimsuit Issue than me, so please do help me figure this out. It is likely due to some offline promotion or high profile mention in the media.

Also, the issue seems to be gaining in popularity online. Visits to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue website are up 47% year on year and 29% over the past two years.

Heather Hopkins

Heather Hopkins is VP of Research for Hitwise UK. This piece was originally posted on Hitwise Analyst blog here.