Online video is a hot topic these days with new entrants coming online (e.g. PluggedIn) and out of beta (e.g. Hulu) every day. We are seeing users spend a bit more more time with the video websites, spending an average of 16 minutes and 12 seconds for the week ending April 12, 2008 as compared to 15 minutes and 14 seconds during the same week last year. One interesting trend that I have noticed is that search engines and social networks are now accounting for an equal share of referred traffic. Last week (ending April 12, 2008) the share of upstream traffic from search increased 35% over the same week the previous year, while the referred traffic from social networks declined 20%.

So who accounts for the majority of traffic sent to video websites? MySpace, Google, and Yahoo! - each of which own & operate video properties. The share of traffic referred by Google (up 44%) and Yahoo! (up 13%) to the video category increased for the week ending April 12, 2008 when compared to the same week last year. While MySpace accounted for the largest share of referred traffic, there was a 25% decline when compared to the same week during the previous year.

Universal and blended search providing more prominent video results may be one of the reasons for the growth in search-referred traffic. Another driver for this change in referral behavior may be the shifting demographics as video websites attract a more mainstream audience. The traffic to YouTube demonstrates a good example - for the 4 weeks ending April 14, 2007, 30% of their traffic was aged 18-24. This has declined to 21% for the 4 weeks ending April 12, 2008, with the share of traffic being more evenly represented across all age groups. While social networks are no longer only the playground of the young, the majority of the audience (47%) is under the age of 35.

Any other thoughts or theories? i am sure specific content could also play a significant role in the referral sources and demographics as well.

And, Happy Birthday to FunnyorDie.com who turned 1 year old today!

Heather Dougherty

Heather Dougherty is Director, Research at Hitwise. This piece originally appeared on Hitwise's analyst blog here.

Image By PatL