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Where is _____? The Internet Lost and Found

Along with finding lost Web sites, misplaced factoids and other pieces of forgotten information, some of us turn to search engines to discover where things are. From the Hitwise sample of 10 million Internet users, here are some of the...

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July 31, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (2)

Housing Market - Have We Reached Bottom?

Last week's report on existing home sales by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), revealing a 2.6 percent decline from May, added to the pile of sobering news about the housing market and the economy. Here at Hitwise, we have...

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July 29, 2008 in economics | Permalink | User Comments (2)

Searching for a Vice President

With November looming, we're seeing an increase in Internet searches centering on potential vice presidential candidates for both the Obama and McCain Tickets. Over the last 12 weeks here are some of the top searches in the U.S. that contained...

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July 22, 2008 in politics | Permalink | User Comments (3)

Jib Jab - Republicans, Democrats and Sense of Humor

Political satire appears to be dominating campaign news this week. With the latest Jib Jab creation Time for Some Campaignin' this week, I thought it would be an opportune time to ask a new red-state, blue-state question: who has the...

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July 18, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (25)

New Yorker - Satirizing or Perpetuating Obama's Muslim Association?

The uproar over this week's New Yorker cover depicting Barack and Michelle Obama in Muslim and terrorist garb respectively, has resulted in condemnation from both sides of the aisle. The very few that defend the satirical nature of the magazine's...

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July 16, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (10)

Top of Mind - Search and the Economy

I was reading through the comments from Monday's post, "Daisy Whitney" and "Lockean Thinker" make a good point. What's missing from the top "fear of" searches is any mention of recent economic turmoil. Where are the searches for "gas prices,"...

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July 9, 2008 in economics | Permalink | User Comments (2)

What Are We Afraid Of?

Our use of search engines continues to evolve, from their initial use as a method to find a forgotten web address, factoid or product to more personal and introspective queries. One of the things we've noticed in Hitwise data is...

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July 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (4)

Online Video and the Twenty Minute Threshold

This week I was fortunate to be a guest on This Week in Media hosted by Daisy Whitney. During the podcast, the topic of convergence of television and online video came up. An interesting phenomenon that we've noticed in our...

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July 3, 2008 in Online Video | Permalink | User Comments (1)

Porn and Economy - Tale of Two Stumuli

Think Progress had an interesting piece today (Hat Tip: Mel Flashman) on the Economic Stimulus package and increased spending in the adult entertainment industry. According to a press release from the Adult Internet Market Research Company: [adult sites surveyed] "reported...

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July 2, 2008 in economics | Permalink | User Comments (0)

Internet Pornography and Community Standard

In a novel approach, a defense attorney in an obscenity trial in Florida is seeking to admit search data from Google to prove that adult content has become an acceptable community standard. Specifically, the defense charted Google searches for "orgy"...

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July 1, 2008 in Adult Entertainment | Permalink | User Comments (11)