Bomb blast web traffic - more results

Web traffic surged yesterday as British people looked for information after four bombs were set off in London.

According to data from web monitoring company Hitwise, British clicks to news sites surged yesterday to 5.56 per cent of all websites visits. That figure rose from 3.81 per cent of all online hits on Wednesday - an increase of 46 per cent in visits to media and news websites.
 
BBC News was the most visited media website, and was also the sixth most visited site in the UK yesterday (after Google, eBay, Hotmail, MSN UK and Wanadoo) up from an overall rank of fifteenth on Wednesday.

Other websites also saw a sharp rise in hits - the Sky News website rocketed from an overall rank of 367th on Wednesday to become the 62nd most visited site, while Google News UK increased from 132nd to 58th.

Jannie Cahill, a marketing manager for Hitwise, said: "It's in line with 9/11. People didn't know what had happened so went to the internet to find out. I remember going to the BBC website and it crashed. It wasn't updated as much as others, so people were going elsewhere - they were updated more."

City commuters also sought news on transport disruptions - and the Transport for London website (www.transportforlondon.gov.uk) increased from an overall rank of 500th on Wednesday to become the 70th most visited site in the UK yesterday.

www.liftshare.com and ferry company www.thamesclippers.com were two of the most clicked links from the Transport for London website, as commuters sought alternative ways to get home.
 
Hitwise said that G8-related websites dropped out of the top 20 politics sites yesterday, despite dominating the category earlier in the week. Several controversial sites offering conspiracy theories on the terrorist attacks moved up the ranking.

Cahill added: "Politics sites were right up there but completely dropped out and were replaced."

The top 10 most visited news and media websites yesterday were:

1 - BBC News - 23.9 per cent
2 - bbc.co.uk - 15.61 per cent
3 - BBC Weather - 4.07 per cent
4 - Yahoo! UK and Ireland News - 2.76 per cent
5 - Google News UK - 2.08 per cent
6 - Sky News - 2.03 per cent
7 - CNN.com - 1.81 per cent
8 - Google News - 1.54 per cent
9 - Guardian Unlimited - 1.51 per cent
10 - MSN UK News and Weather - 1.06 per cent