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Lil Wayne Top Search Term on YouTube in December 2008
Music searches make majority of YouTube queries
New York, NY, January 29, 2009 – An analysis by Hitwise®, an Experian company, of the top 50 search terms1 entered into YouTube’s Web site search for December 2008 reveals that music-related search terms dominate YouTube queries. This custom data, available for the first time, shows that the majority of searches on YouTube are for a band, an artist or a song. Searches for the rapper Lil Wayne ranked first in December 2008.
Other searches for artists included Beyonce, Soulja Boy and Chris Brown. Searches for individual songs, such as “Single Ladies,” “Love Story”, “Right Now (Na Na Na)”, “How Do You Sleep” and “Womanizer,” also featured prominently on the list.
Top 20 search terms on YouTube December 2008

The top 50 search terms on YouTube accounted for 20 percent of the site’s total search volume in December 2008. Behind music searches, Internet personalities were next most popular searched, followed by miscellaneous searches and then TV searches.
One common trend was the rise of Internet celebrities — particularly Fred, who portrays a self-described 6-year-old with anger management issues. The search term “Fred” ranked as the seventh most searched term overall. Fred is a reminder of the “Internet celebrity” phenomenon (for example, Lonely Girl), where individuals who previously would have been unknown can rise to celebrity status among a niche audience. The search term “Charlie bit my finger” this referring to a popular viral video, ranked 31st.
YouTube searches are different from searches on the main engines such as Google and Yahoo! Search that drive traffic to YouTube. Analysis of the top search terms on YouTube compared with those across the major search engines reveals some clear differences. In particular, searches for individual songs are much more common on YouTube. Also, bands that dominate searches on YouTube tend to be those that appeal to younger audiences.
Overall, YouTube ranked as the 10th most visited Web site in the United States in December 2008.
About Hitwise Hitwise, an Experian company, is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,500 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive Web sites and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.
Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise’s patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy-to-use, Web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.
Hitwise, an Experian company (FTS:EXPN), www.experianplc.com, operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.
For up-to-date analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence — Analyst Weblogs at http://weblogs.hitwise.com and the Hitwise Data Center at www.hitwise.com/datacenter.
About Experian Experian is a global leader in providing information, analytical and marketing services to organizations and consumers to help manage the risk and reward of commercial and financial decisions.
Combining its unique information tools and deep understanding of individuals, markets and economies, Experian partners with organizations around the world to establish and strengthen customer relationships and provide their businesses with competitive advantage.
For consumers, Experian delivers critical information that enables them to make financial and purchasing decisions with greater control and confidence. Clients include organizations from financial services, retail and catalog, telecommunications, utilities, media, insurance, automotive, leisure, e-commerce, manufacturing, property and government sectors.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Experian has corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and has operational headquarters in Costa Mesa, Calif., and Nottingham, UK. The Group employs approximately 15,500 people in 38 countries worldwide, supporting clients in more than 65 countries around the world. Continuing sales for the year ended March 31, 2008, were in excess of $4 billion.
For more information, visit www.experianplc.com.
Matt Tatham Hitwise, an Experian company 1 212 380 2939
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